August 2018 – InfoHive – Data Security

4% of State Websites Pass Security Tests. 2 Key Points. New Study.

Authors of Report: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

The report: Benchmarking State Government Websites

What do I need to know?

States can improve their security by having their web servers properly enable HTTPS and DNSSEC
State website accessibility is improving with 67% passing mobile friendly standards

Texas came in 41st overall. Virginia #1.

The federal govenrment has tied Title IV Funding to data security, here’s the key standards that could be replicated by states:

Without these requirements, univeristies lose funding.

What steps did Chattanooga TN take to expand health care accessibility?

Chattanooga’s utilities provider,invested heavily in fiber-optic network infrastructure, delivering 1-gigabit-per-second connections
The city actively explored delivering telehealth services to residents who subscribe to EPB broadband services
Docity, as Hypepotamus reports, is “a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform that works by partnering with communities and internet service providers to add telehealth access to…

a single file containing an estimated 14.8 million records was left unsecured, without a password, online
File ownership is not clear but is likely “Data Trust, a Republican-focused data analytics firm created by the GOP”
data includes fields that might score an individual’s believed views on immigration, hunting, abortion rights, government spending and views on the Second Amendment
data also includes additional personal information, such as a person’s phone numbers and their ethnicity and…

Michigan Secretary of State Democratic candidate is proposing this election security plan:

Post-election audits requirement
Standardizing poll worker training
Convening a commission of top election security experts to advise Michigan
Stronger penalties for tampering with voting machines
Switching Michigan to a different system to crosscheck voter files against other states

States are enacting more quickly and fully than the federal government on data security regulation. Here’s a look at the 5 states leading the way:

California Consumer Privacy Act (AB375 | 2018 | CA)
- 2 year grace period
- follows the EU’s GDPR
Vermont ( H764 | 2018 | VT)
- toughest data collection disclosure bill in the US
- Data Broker Bill
Colorado (HB11-1128 | 2018 | CO)
- Strengthened its protections of “personal identifying information”
New Jersey (S1913 | 2016 |NJ)
- Shopper…

Indiana Secretary of State outreach plan touting a secure election contains:

television, radio, and print ads stressing voter registration deadline
- safe, secure, and reliable voter registration, go to Indianavoters.com.”
refers to the IN election system as “he healthiest 200-year-old”
touting security measures:
- stresses none of Indiana’s voting machines are connected to the internet
- Ball State tests the state’s voting systems

Removing a requirement for a paper count of ballots as a post-election audit method.

The statement from Verified Voting.

Florida offers local governments election security grants that:

Can purchase electronic poll registers to prevent double voting
Can purchase and install off-site server
Provide for hiring an IT professional to implement the new off-site server
Offers local governments an opportunity for backups in place to resume the continuity of operations instantaneously