Cybersecurity

At a time when simply opening a suspicious email can lead to the crippling of school, city or town hall computer networks, the state is helping to train municipal employees how to detect and avoid cyber threats.

The New Jersey township is still restoring operations after a hacker gained access to systems and began sending fraudulent emails to residents. The township is investigating whether any personal data was compromised.

With the Belgium-based Spotit set to open its first U.S. office in Raleigh, North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus expects to grow its computer science and engineering programs and add more than 100 jobs.

The State Bar of California is reporting that the public release of attorney disciplinary records is more extensive than originally thought. The agency maintains there was no malicious hack of its computer system.

Roughly one year after launch, the nonprofit is being used by 10 states. The growing government user base may help encourage more vendors to undergo the necessary StateRAMP cybersecurity audits.

In the aftermath of an incident, Colorado’s top election official wants to mandate increased security and training for people running local elections, as well as increase penalties for people who break election law.

An annual report from the K12 Security Information Exchange says ransomware has surpassed data breach attacks as the largest category of cyber attacks on schools, often coming from sophisticated criminals overseas.

Cyber insurance is only getting more expensive, and the market is changing dramatically, with more changes to come. So what trends will drive adoption, rates and the wider future of cyber insurance?

At a news conference this week, Mayor Jerry Dyer announced that the city had lost more than $600,000 to online scammers who were targeting municipalities nationwide. An American suspect has been identified by the FBI.

Gov. Ned Lamont said he is becoming more confident in the state's ability to defend against cyber attacks. His comments come as the state waits for more than $90 million in federal funding to bolster cyber defenses.

Through a recently proposed bill, lawmakers are trying to create a cyber preparedness unit to strengthen the state’s cybersecurity posture. The unit would operate out of the Department of Emergency Management.

The Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program this year will train more than 57,000 employees from 210 municipalities and school districts, more than double the number of organizations last year.

School districts in North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana represent case studies in three of the biggest challenges facing K-12 schools today: tech equity for students, cybersecurity and IT staff shortages.

With the addition of Stellar Cyber’s Open XDR platform, Boise State's Cyberdome program will offer enterprise-level cybersecurity services, led by students and mentors, to state and local agencies with limited resources.

China state-backed APT41 hacked at least six states between May 2021 and February 2022. Several of the incidents occurred when hackers exploited flaws in Log4J and the USAHERDS system, reports cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

During the recent Beyond the Beltway event, state and county CISOs and CIOs talked through the process of evaluating vendor cybersecurity, safeguarding elections, managing federal grants and adopting new defense strategies.

District 518 is investigating with Southwest West Central Service Co-Op after an intruder hacked an employee's email account and apparently used it to send other emails. The district doesn't know if data was leaked.

The country has to act now against cybersecurity threats, and South Carolina as a state and a market is well positioned to lead the fight, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday in Beaufort.