Cybersecurity

The Port of Los Angeles stands out for strong cyber defenses, but at other ports across the country, cybersecurity capabilities can vary wildly. The White House seeks to change this.

Bill Zielinski, who has led the Information and Technology Services department since 2020, will step down April 30. In recent years, he led the city’s response to a ransomware attack, and to the deletion of millions of police records.

In an effort to use remaining ESSER funds, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction is encouraging K-12 organizations that offer cybersecurity and artificial intelligence instruction to apply for grants.

Technology companies must take more responsibility for designing systems that safeguard users’ information, a leading White House cybersecurity official said recently. He also urged students to think about joining the federal cyber workforce.

Nearly 2,800 patients at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester may have had files with personal and health information exposed, in what the hospital called a third-party “data security incident.” Those potentially affected will be notified by mail.

Authorities are working to prepare for one by, for the first time, conducting a massive federal tabletop exercise focused on food and agriculture cybersecurity resilience.

The federal government is slated to distribute $18.2 million of Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program funds as soon as the spring, and experts say the funds will help address important needs.

The incident, detected April 14, resulted in a third party gaining unauthorized access to portions of the company’s IT environment — and to personally identifiable information. As part of its response, Frontier shut down systems.

CyberTrust Massachusetts is launching new cyber assessment and monitoring services, which will give the state's cities and towns access to new capabilities to help reverse the trend of escalating cyber attacks.

A report released Wednesday connects a Texas cyber attack to hacker groups with Russian government ties, per CNN. The incident, in January, caused no injuries and did not affect drinking water.

In the wake of the incident earlier this year, Willamette Valley districts are conducting mandatory cybersecurity training for staff and using multifactor authentication.

As suspected Wednesday, bad actors are to blame for taking computers in the state’s Bill Drafting Commission offline. The incident is further delaying production of the already-late state budget.

After a ransomware attack recently caused major issues for medical providers as well as their patients, lawmakers are looking for policy moves that can protect against a repeat.

The group behind the March 21 cyber attack has published information it obtained on the dark web, the Tarrant Appraisal District said. People whose information has been compromised have been notified by mail.

The incident early Wednesday will require the state to use “antiquated” computers to draft its budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul said. The bill drafting system remained partly down Wednesday afternoon.

The ransomware group Medusa claimed responsibility for a cyber attack earlier this month that disrupted the network at Traverse City Area Public Schools in Michigan and forced it to cancel classes for days.

At an event held by the Institute for Security and Technology, experts discussed why simply arresting ransomware developers isn’t enough to effectively combat this cybersecurity problem.

Cyber attacks and the related expenses of identifying the incident, fixing it, notifying customers — and improving security — has become routine in the Vancouver, Wash., area. This in turn has sparked demand for cybersecurity professionals.