CMO Technology & E-Government 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A municipality's IT director recommends a zero-trust security architecture. What is the core principle of this model?
- Trust all users inside the network perimeter automatically
- Never trust, always verify — authenticate every user and device regardless of location (Correct answer)
- Block all external internet access to city systems
- Use only government-certified hardware
Correct answer: Never trust, always verify — authenticate every user and device regardless of location
Zero-trust assumes no user or device is inherently trustworthy, requiring continuous verification regardless of network location.
Question 2: Which federal program provides cybersecurity resources and assessment tools specifically for state and local governments?
- EPA Environmental Justice Program
- CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) (Correct answer)
- HUD Community Development Block Grants
- FEMA Public Assistance Program
Correct answer: CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
CISA provides cybersecurity assessments, resources, and incident response support specifically for critical infrastructure including local governments.
Question 3: A city council is evaluating AI-powered tools to automate permit processing. Which ethical consideration is MOST critical?
- Ensuring the AI runs on the fastest available hardware
- Auditing for algorithmic bias that could discriminate against protected classes (Correct answer)
- Maximizing processing speed above all other concerns
- Eliminating all human review from the decision process
Correct answer: Auditing for algorithmic bias that could discriminate against protected classes
AI systems can perpetuate historical biases; municipalities must audit algorithmic outputs to ensure equitable treatment under civil rights laws.
Question 4: What does 'digital equity' mean in the context of municipal e-government planning?
- Equal IT budget allocations across all departments
- Ensuring all residents have affordable internet access and digital literacy to use online services (Correct answer)
- Using identical software platforms across all city offices
- Equal pay for all IT staff regardless of role
Correct answer: Ensuring all residents have affordable internet access and digital literacy to use online services
Digital equity means addressing barriers — cost, access, skills — so all residents can benefit from e-government services regardless of income or location.
Question 5: A city is migrating paper records to a digital document management system (DMS). Which records management principle must be maintained?
- All digital records must be converted to PDF/A format only
- Retention schedules and legal hold requirements must be preserved in the new system (Correct answer)
- Paper originals must be destroyed immediately after scanning
- Only elected officials may access digitized records
Correct answer: Retention schedules and legal hold requirements must be preserved in the new system
Retention schedules and legal holds are legal obligations that must transfer to any new records system to ensure compliance.
Question 6: Which approach best supports business continuity when a municipality's primary data center experiences a catastrophic failure?
- Rebooting servers repeatedly until they recover
- Activating a geographically separate disaster recovery (DR) site with replicated data (Correct answer)
- Canceling all services until the main facility is repaired
- Switching to fax machines for all communications
Correct answer: Activating a geographically separate disaster recovery (DR) site with replicated data
A geographically separate DR site with replicated data ensures services can resume quickly even if the primary facility is completely unavailable.
Question 7: A resident submits a public records request for emails stored in a city official's personal account used for city business. What is the correct response?
- Deny the request because the account is personal property
- Retrieve and review the emails; government business on any platform is subject to public records law (Correct answer)
- Refer the resident to the official's personal attorney
- Ignore the request as it involves private technology
Correct answer: Retrieve and review the emails; government business on any platform is subject to public records law
Public records laws govern the content of government communications regardless of what device or account was used to create them.
CMO Technology & E-Government 3
A municipality's IT director recommends a zero-trust security architecture.
What is the core principle of this model?