NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI) — The Rhode Island Cybersecurity Commission met with experts at the Naval War College on Thursday to talk about protecting information in state agencies’ databases. The Commission, which was created by Governor Gina Raimondo in May, met with members of the F.B.I. and other national experts about ways to protect the state from cyber threats.
“Cyber crimes are a $2 trillion business,” said Scott DePasquale, chairman of the commission. State databases in particular raise concern, because of the amounts of personal and sensitive information that state agencies store, including tax filings with Social Security numbers.
“Today is about making sure that Rhode Island is as safe as possible,” said Raimondo.
State lawmakers say they hope to prevent data breaches like the recent one at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Hackers accessed 22 million people’s Social Security numbers, health information and other sensitive data in that cyber attack.
Members of the F.B.I. Counterintelligence Unit were among the experts gathered in Newport, including Mark Levett, who warned about threats from foreign companies.
“We’ve outsourced a lot of our data transmission to these foreign companies,” he said, “and in turn, given our foreign adversaries access to our critical infrastructure.”
Raimondo charged the commission with analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the state’s databases. They will submit two reports — the first, by October, will address ways to improve the state’s cybersecurity, while the second, due in December, will include ways to create cybersecurity jobs.
“If in the process of making our state safer, we can also create some IT jobs and defense jobs,” Raimondo said, “then of course, that’s what I want to focus on.
View the original content and more from this author here: http://ift.tt/1Jm24WI
from cyber security caucus http://ift.tt/1fOQpZx
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment