Cybersecurity

Following a ransom attack in late March that prompted the county to take systems including Wi-Fi, jail databases and court records offline for days, the local government will transition to a .gov website in early June.

The proposed act would establish a legal framework for state cybersecurity and artificial intelligence governance by mandating annual cyber training for public employees. It would also create cyber and AI oversight groups.

Administrative systems at the county 911 center were impacted by a cybersecurity incident, though radio communications and certain dispatch functions were unaffected. Officials are taking steps to contain the issue.

What’s on the minds of top local government chief information security officers? In this interview, Michael Dent shares current security and technology priorities, career tips and more.

Rodgers, a longtime officer in the U.S. Navy, has considerable technology experience in the private sector, including as a federal and public security architect at IBM. He is the former deputy mayor for Boca Raton, Fla.

The district attorney’s office in Fort Bend County is investigating the Feb. 24 breach of the county’s library system, which led to $2.6 million in contracts with cybersecurity companies. Some library systems are still down.

State CIO Madhu Gottumukkala reflects on lessons learned and IT advances focused on better public service, as he prepares to depart for a new cybersecurity role with the federal government.

The state Office of Information Technology reported the breach, which is affecting systems across the state. Some state employee usernames and passwords were compromised in the incident, uncovered Friday night.

Most governments struggle with replacing legacy systems for a variety of reasons. But some people claim legacy mainframes can be just as secure as modern ones. So how big is the legacy cyber threat?

The federal agency is cautioning residents and business owners that old “end of life” routers are prime targets for bad actors capable of infecting them with malware. The FBI advises they be replaced immediately.

The North Carolina district learned earlier this year that a data breach of the software company PowerSchool impacted an estimated 150,000 current and former students and 28,000 current and former staff members.

The East Bay city will offer the free service plus identity theft protection to people who may have been impacted in an August 2024 cybersecurity incident. An investigation is continuing.

A cyber criminal who successfully extorted the software company PowerSchool for ransom in December 2024 did not delete the stolen data as promised. Now the same culprit appears to be threatening individual districts.

In a new report, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers proposes cybersecurity training for incarcerated people could enable them to more easily find work once released — addressing an acute staffing shortage.

State officials in Kansas have continued to modernize technology platforms and improve cybersecurity, even as they spearheaded a recovery from a 2023 ransomware attack against the judicial system.

The state Department of Environmental Quality is probing a cyber attack nearly a month ago. An outside contractor is assisting in a digital forensic investigation; its exact timeline is not yet clear.

Driven by the largest donation in the university's history, the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing will focus on the intersection of AI and cybersecurity and meeting workforce needs.

The March incident, which compromised information belonging to at least 10 people, was a ransom attack, the county said in a statement. The local government declined attackers’ demand and took systems offline.