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What state cybersecurity task forces have accomplished so far | Public Safety

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Which States Have Cybersecurity Task Forces?

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To protect against cyber threats, many state governments have formed specialized task forces to address issues like ransomware, phishing and other forms of cyber attacks. But what have these groups accomplished so far?

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, at least 30 states have created a statewide cybersecurity task force, commission, advisory council, or similar group in the past several years. Most were established through executive orders, the website states, but at least eight states created these initiatives through legislation.

The states that have implemented these types of working groups include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

A PERSISTENT THREAT

When it comes to cybersecurity in state and local government, industry experts point to myriad challenges, including ransomware attacks, open source software vulnerabilities, phishing emails, outdated legacy code and other issues.

Some of these issues were recently discussed at the RSA Conference, where experts weighed in on zero-trust security architectures, long-awaited cybersecurity grant funding, cyber insurance and addressing misinformation.

To put the issue further into perspective, computer security service company SecuLore Solutions found that 49 states and Washington, D.C., have been affected by cyber attacks in the past 24 months. Similar threats have also impacted 90 public safety agencies and 199 local governments.

Other statistics from a November 2021 international report from CyberEdge reaffirmed this trend stating that more than 68 percent of surveyed government organizations were compromised by one or more cyber attacks within the past 12 months. The report surveyed 1,200 public- and private-sector IT security professionals from 17 countries and focused on organizations with at least 500 employees. Government respondents made up more than 4 percent of…

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Ransomware Task Force calls for better incident reporting

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Members from the Ransomware Task Force called for better incident reporting during a panel at RSA Conference 2022.

The RSA panel was titled “Progress in the Year of Ransomware: Analysis with the Ransomware Task Force” and featured four members of the task force: Phil Reiner, CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology (IST); Megan Stifel, IST chief strategy officer; Michael Phillips, chief claims officer at cyber insurer Resilience; and Michael Daniel, president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.

The Ransomware Task Force is a public-private partnership formed last spring by the IST and dedicated to disrupting the threat of ransomware. The panel acted as a look at efforts made over the past year, as well as an opportunity to discuss progress that still needs to be made.

A key piece of the panel focused on incident reporting, which requires ransomware victims to notify the U.S. government after they’ve been struck by a cyber attack. The panelists discussed how difficult it is to get a complete picture of ransomware when public- and private-sector sources often have very different tallies when it comes time to present attack statistics each year.

“The FBI, through its IC3 reporting mechanism, came out with its ransomware reporting statistics, and it’s extraordinarily low compared to what even a specialist cyber insurance company would see year in, year out,” Phillips said. “So we still see this this data gap, whether it’s per unit of government or institutions like insurance companies, which aggregate the victim’s data and experience. We’re all seeing very partial aspects of the picture, which makes the reporting requirements that we’ve been discussing so, so important.”

In a report that launched alongside the task force, four recommendations were made to support victims. These included clarity from the U.S. Treasury in its ransom payment guidance, a recovery fund for organizations that refuse to pay the ransom, creating a ransomware attack reporting standard and requiring organizations to disclose ransomware payments to the government prior to paying.

Stifel said progress has been made on all four fronts, and while there is still a ways to go in some aspects (specifically…

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Semperis and Sirius Healthcare Team Up to Launch a Ransomware Task Force for Healthcare Companies

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HOBOKEN, N.J.–()–Semperis, the pioneer of identity-driven cyber resilience for enterprises, today announced the launch of its ransomware task force for healthcare providers, formed in partnership with Sirius Healthcare, a leading provider of security consulting services for over 450 healthcare clients nationwide. The task force aims to improve the cybersecurity posture and resiliency of hospitals, pharmaceuticals, insurers, and other healthcare companies. The healthcare sector is target-rich for ransomware attacks, which have increased by 400% industry-wide this year, according to Gartner. .

“Healthcare companies, big and small, are on the front lines of the global war on ransomware,” said Mickey Bresman, CEO of Semperis. “Think about hospitals that can’t access their systems to save a life or sensitive patient data getting into the wrong hands; the ransomware task force helps organizations take back control. Semperis and Sirius, together, have been called on to help numerous hospitals regain control of their environments—focusing on protecting and recovering their core identity management system, Active Directory—and continuing operations without disrupting patient services. In many cases, the AD was destroyed and required us to hunt down the adversary, close security holes, and eliminate vulnerabilities to trust the environment again following the cyberattack. Today, Semperis is proud to protect five of the largest healthcare organizations in the world.”

A 2021 survey of cybersecurity professionals revealed that organizations in the healthcare sector are among the most targeted by ransomware attackers and the least likely to have developed contingency plans. The exploitation of Active Directory (AD), the identity system used in 90% of organizations worldwide, is a common thread in the surge of ransomware attacks on healthcare companies. Attackers take advantage of weak AD configurations to identify attack paths, access privileged credentials, and deploy ransomware. In partnership with Semperis, Sirius Healthcare offers healthcare organizations the industry’s most comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for AD and Azure AD, supported by a global…

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