Category Archives: local government

Lege Trend. Mandating ID Protection Post Hack. Who pays? A Win for Procurement.

State: California

Who pays for ID Protection when a private corportation has a data breach? The corporation

Who currently pays for ID protection when a locla government has a data breach? The person whose data was hacked

Is there a bill to make local governments pay for ID protection when a hack occurs? Yes, California Assembly Bill 241

Government Technology | When a Data Breach Happens, Will California Pay for Protection?

Lege Trend: State Agency on CyberSecurity. +1 More Western State.

Add Nevada to the list of states moving to create an Office of Cyber Defense. Governor Sandoval proposes funding it with $3.5 million.

The Office of Syber Defense will be within the Nevada Department of Public Safety and will offer assistance to local government agencies and private industry.

Las Vegas Review Journal | Marijuana, cybersecurity among debates to happen in Nevada Legislature

LOCAL TREND. Ransomeware Hits City CCTV. 3 Bits Informed Intel.

A ransomware attack hit Washington D.C.’s closed circuit tv 8 days before inauguration. Here’s what you need to know to get up to speed:

  • 70% of storage devices recording data from D.C. police surveillance cameras were hit
  • Forced major city wide reinstallation
  • The city addressed the ransomeware without paying a ransom by:
    • taking devices offline
    • removing all software
    • restarting the system

Washington Post | Hackers hit D.C. police closed-circuit camera network, city officials disclose

6 Crucial Elements of Cyber Security Legislation.

  1. Multidisciplinary application. Cybersecurity is not just for the Information Officer.
  2. Data is an asset. Protect it. Have a game plan for how long you’re keeping the asset.
  3. Data lives on mobile devices and moveable devices too. Protect those too.
  4. Know the information you keep.
  5. Train employees. Employees create cybersecurity breaches too.
  6. Legislative and regulatory data security standards are the floor, not the ceiling.

Tech Target | Six keys to creating strong data-security measures

Empire Governor State Cyber Security Plan. 3 Point Plan.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set forth his plan for protecting the cybersecurity of New Yorkers by:

  • Creating a “response team” to handle confidential information breaches from state & local governments 
  • Create a graduated system of punishments for computer tampering crimes based on the amount of damage
  • More severe punishments for identity Theft

New York Law Journal | Cuomo Promises New Cybersecurity Measures in 2017

Protecting Education Data. Consider this 3rd Party Education Vendor Experience in Chicago

What data was shared? Chicago Public Schools improperly shared student information that led to direct advertising by a Charter School. 

How did a 3rd party gain access to public school data? A school employee willingly shared it with the Charter School.

SC Media | Chicago Public School data improperly shared

3 Steps to Thwart Ransomeware. Local Government Success Over Hackers.

How did San Francisco’s Muni system stop a ransomeware attack that held its system hostage? In 3 steps:

  • Shut down electronics- opened fare gates & shut down ticket machines
  • Contacted Homeland Security
  • Relied on its technology team to restart the system from a backup

The success of Muni’s actions:

  • Friday night the electronic ticketing shut down, by Monday the system was up and running
  • No confidential information was obtained by the hackers
  • Muni never communicated with the hackers…

Trend. Business helps Cities Build Data.

Business gather and analyze data to make business decisions. Some businesses are embracing philanthropy and sharing that data with cities.

Examples of cities using data to improve public service:

  •  New York City created the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics
  • Chicago has Array of Things, a sensor system to gather and collect data
  • Boston and Uber are partnering to utilize Uber data to help Boston improve  congestion and community planning

Governing | How Companies Can Help Cities Close…

5 Data Security Issues for Local Governments via a State Auditor

Top 5 data security vulnerabilities for local governments:

  • passwords of officials and staff
  • providing too great of access to computer network to officials/employees
  • failure to automatically locking systems after non-use
  • inadequate backups
  • failure to restrict editing by users and failure to track edits by users

Missouri State Auditor | Findings in the summary report of common cybersecurity mistakes