Cybersecurity

Federal cybersecurity grants are expected “in the coming months,” with CISA still mulling feedback and finalizing. Local governments should use the time to ensure they’re part of any state planning processes.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a report last week highlighting potential hacking vulnerabilities with the Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines used by the state.

Claiming to be an accredited virtual school affiliated with the University of New Orleans, the fake City University of New Orleans has been scamming thousands of dollars from people since at least early last year.

Former CISA director Chris Krebs has joined data security firm Rubrik, where he’ll help the firm better understand unmet cybersecurity needs across different sectors. The company homes in on data resiliency and recovery.

Gov. Jared Polis this week signed into law SB22-153, which requires new security measures for election systems, and HB22-1273, which makes it a crime to threaten election officials or publish their personal information online.

Brasher Falls and Norwood-Norfolk school districts are warning families about scammers sending paper documents claiming that a student's data was exposed, then directing them to a website that actually steals their data.

The New York City Education Department will no longer do business with the California-based Illuminate Education after a security breach exposed the personal data of roughly 820,000 students.

North Dakota and Indiana passed laws last year requiring local governments to report cyber incidents to the state. The states say this helps them direct cybersecurity resources to localities in need and better understand the threats.

Government agencies and innumerable contractors have access to vast amounts of information on individual state residents, and government agencies are heavily targeted by hackers for political and financial reasons.

State chief information officers get specific about their responsibilities when it comes to the cyber health of the state itself, as well as the myriad governmental organizations within it.

Several states are offering legal safe harbors to businesses that follow industry-recommended cybersecurity frameworks, in a carrot-not-stick approach intended to encourage better defenses.

A digital twin is to a computer model as live video is to a still photo. These virtual replicas can be used to understand and make predictions about a wide range of complex systems, including people.

Usernames and passwords were taken from the Joint Commission On Public Ethics legacy system in a breach first discovered in February, officials announced in an email to state employees.

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a lead analyst from the accounting and business advisory firm Schneider Downs discusses cyber attack vulnerabilities and what colleges can do to mitigate them.

In this interview with Washington state Chief Privacy Officer Katy Ruckle, we explore the role of data privacy in providing government services.  

State and local governments are often seen as easy targets for hackers. To avoid devastating ransomware attacks that have plagued cities worldwide, a first key step is to limit privileged access to systems.

More than 900 people have had their personal info compromised — potentially including their birthdate, driver’s license and social security number — following a cyber breach in East Windsor in February, officials say.

The public sector is facing changing cyber threats — not just because of remote work, but from increasing ransomware hacks and nation-state attacks as well. But there are also new tools ready to meet those challenges.