+1 State Bill. Equifax Reaction from Bluegrass Country. Procurement Opportunities + New Encryption Standards.

Kentucky Attorney General proposes revisions to the state’s data breach notification statute to require:

  • Kentuckians impacted by a data breach would gain access to a free credit freeze
  • Require access to 3 free credit reports each year from each of the major credit reporting agencies
  • Require 5 years of credit monitoring
  • Require all credit reports be encrypted

WCPO | Kentucky’s attorney general proposes new data breach protections after Equifax incident

6 Recommendations from Congress' Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force. Writing Health Care Data Security Bills for you.

In the Cybersecurity Act of 2015,   Congress created the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force.

6 “critical” recommendations were offered:

  1. Define and streamline leadership, governance, and expectations for health care industry cybersecurity.

  2. Increase the security and resilience of medical devices and health IT.

  3. Develop the health care workforce capacity necessary to prioritize and ensure cybersecurity awareness and technical capabilities.

  4. Increase health care industry readiness through improved cybersecurity awareness and education.

  5. Identify mechanisms to protect research and development efforts and intellectual property from attacks or exposure.

  6. Improve information sharing of industry threats, weaknesses, and mitigations.

JAMA | Cybersecurity—A Serious Patient Care Concern

+1 Local Government Paying Ransom on Ransomware Hack.

The local government: Montgomery Co. Maryland

The hackers demanded: 9 bitcoins, valued at between $40,000 and $50,000

Other local governmetns have been able to retrieve data from back up and not pay the ransom, was that tried? Yes, but for reasons unrelated to the hack the backup was not a viable option

What was the value of the data to the county? $5 million

Montgomery Advertiser  | Montgomery County pays ransom, gets data back

Regulatory Trend. State Elections Security Team from the North. Go Bears.

Wisconsin’s election officials have created a state elections security team, and here’s what you need to know:

  • Inter-agency Communication.  It will work with federal, state and local elections officials
  • Cyber security Infrastructure. Builds on cyber-security steps already taken
  • Best Practices. Establishes best practices to address ever-changing threats
  • Statewide Policies?  The team will consider whether to mandate that local clerks meet minimum security requirements for hardware and software they use
  •  3 Ways the Security Team will Help Local Election Administrators.
    • ​Training of local election officials
    • Maintaining a list of key federal, state and local contacts
    • Developing contingency and action plans to deal with security issues

Wisconsin Law Journal | State creating elections security team, plan

Want to Make Your City or Your State an Economic Power House for Your Client's Cybersecurity Business? 4 Easy Steps/

  • Partner with the private sector and local nonprofits.
  • Be creative and develop a program that is customized to the particular area. 
  • Develop connections between military and government units that have use for the local talent and the companies that surround them.
  • Facilitate the local placement of national government cybersecurity capacities. 

Politico | How to erect an economic powerhouse using cybersecurity

Cybersecurity as an Engine for Growth Authors: Natasha Cohen, Rachel Hulvey, Jittip Mongkolnchaiarunya, Anne Novak, Robert Morgus and Adam Segal

4 Requisites to Make Cyber Security = Economic Growth Engine. New Report Highlights San Antonio, TX.

A new report, Cybersecurity as an Engine for Growth, looked at Beersheba, Israel; Malvern, United Kingdom; and San Antonio, United States to find 3 ways cyber security can lead to economic growth:

  • Proximity to government cybersecurity functions ups the talent pool & opens up contracting opportunities.
  • Being able to attract or develop a workforce is critical.
  • Requires Research centers and incubators nearby.
  • Industry leadership help raise public awareness & bring crucial capital to the market

Politico Morning Cyber Security | How to erect an economic powerhouse using cybersecurity

TREND. The Next Technology for Government & Local Government Data. All Data. All places. 3 Bits informed:intel

  • The new hot commodity in data security: blockchain
  • How does it work? Llike a spy network where no one entity or server has all the information.
  • How quickly can information and payments move? Instaneously with no holding fees.

How does the spy network analogy play out for data?

Say your a city controller making payments to a contractor. The payment can be processed instaneously without being hacked because the information is broken down into packets, encrypted and each packet is sent a different path & then reassembled so that the city knows the funds have been withdrawn and the contract recipient has funds deposited.

Governing | The Next Big Technology to Transform Government 

+1 State Lege Acts in Response to Equifax. Read the Bill. 3 Points from the A.G.'s Supporting Op-Ed.

New York State Assembly is pursuing SB06880 to require a consumer to be notified of a breach within 15 days of discovering the breach.New York SB 06880 (2017)

Supporting changes to New York’s Data Security and Notification Act, the state Attorney General states:

  • Expect more from companies entrusted with your data
  • All companies need reasonable security measures for their scale of company and type of business (what’s good for Equifax isn’t good for the Zavala Patisserie)
  • Private information should include your phone fingerprint or face scan and a slew of other private information

New York Daily News |Op-Ed by New York A.G. Eric Schneiderman | Raising our guard vs. mega-breaches 

Long Island Business News  | AG calls for tighter regs after Equifax breach