Secretary of State

Goals

Update: The Secretary of State's office staff have completed security awareness training for the last two years.
All SOS public facing web application are being scanned for vulnerabilities. SOS servers are being scanned for OS and web vulnerabilities. Web application firewall rules and carbon black are in blocking mode. The SOS website has layers of security on WordPress: multifactor authentication, cloudflare, webARX (a WP specific firewall).

Objectives

  • Develop a System Security Plan
    Update: The Secretary of State's office partnered with SITSD to develop system security plans for 2 of our most critical applications. 1. MT VOTES - Statewide Voter Registration system used by State and County employees to track and verify voter registration information across Montana. 2. eSERS - enterprise software solution used for the Montana Secretary of State Elections Division for the reporting of election results.
  • Fully Implement MultiFactor Authentication for State and County Employees
    Update: Multifactor Authentication has been fully implemented for county election staff and all Secretary of State employees. In addition, the Secretary of States office has required security awareness training for all SOS staff and county election staff.
  • Protect Secretary of State Systems by leveraging partnerships established by MT-ISAC to enhance information sharing, outreach and risk awareness.
    Update: The Secretary of State's office has utilized the information sharing from the MT-ISAC to inform and educate State staff, county election employees, and our vendors on existing vulnerabilities and the importance of securing our systems. The Secretary of State have taken opportunities provided by the MT-ISAC, MS-ISAC and EI-ISAC, such as the annual Table Top the Vote 2020. In addition, we have completed two Risk and Vulnerability tests through the Department of Homeland security.

Update: The Secretary of State continues to help commerce thrive and provide immaculate customer service. The Business Services Division of began the “going digital” initiative with completely on-line for Business filings for in September of 2017. As a result of completely on line filing, we were able to transition our staff to work safely at home while still providing excellent customer services during the pandemic.

Objectives

  • Implement a State-of-the-Art website
    Update: The Secretary of State has a fully implemented, state of the art website that reflects the mission and brand of the agency. It is fully secure through cloud hosting, WebARX WAF and Cloudflare.
  • Deliver online and mobile access to state services for citizens, businesses and state employees.
    Update: In late 2019, the Secretary of State launched a new system for lien filings and Notary, making all of Business Services completely online. By moving to a fully digital format, along with modernizing and streamlining our system and processes, we are serving more customers and responding faster than ever. In addition, we have eliminated errors and reprocessing fees. The Secretary of State is also one of the first in the country to offer remote notarization and the first in the nation to offer e-Apostilles.

Update: The Secretary of States office completed a project to scan all internal paper records into a digital format. Housing internal records in a digital format is considered the industry standard. Records are being indexed and organized for easy and efficient retrieval and also decreasing the number of records that for off- site physical storage. Over 800,000 records have been scanned and indexed.

Objectives

  • Implement a completely on-line business filing system/process.
    Update: SOS Registry Integration System will be implemented in December 2020. It will provide a single system platform to replace outdated systems and provide a single integrated system and technology platform for all on line filings. The project will provide a system that is intuitive and will offer a user friendly experience for SOS customers.
  • Implement Perceptive content for HR and AP processing.
    Update: Perceptive content was fully implemented in October 2019. The Secretary of State will be moving to the Hyland cloud hosted solution in the fall of 2020.

Agency Contact Information

Agency Director / Administrator
Christi Jacobsen
406-444-2034
cjacobsen@mt.gov

Information Technology Contact
(CIO / IT Manager)
Kellee English
406-444-0489
keenglish@mt.gov

Information Security Manager
Kellee English