Help may be on the way to assist local governments in their ongoing battle against hacking and other cybercrimes, thanks to two bipartisan initiatives on Capitol Hill.

Legislative Activity

The State and Local Cyber Protection Act of 2017 (S.412) would make training from the Department of Homeland Security accessible on request to help local, state, and tribal governments prevent and respond to cyber threats.

The bill, recently reintroduced by Senators Gary Peters (D-Michigan) and David Perdue (R-Georgia), was first introduced in the last Congress, but it didn’t move forward. The National Association of Counties has urged its members to support it.

In another legislative initiative, two senators and two representatives representing both parties introduced the State Cyber Resiliency Act, which would fund grants administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist cities and states in cybersecurity planning and implementation.

Reports of data breaches are becoming almost commonplace—a troubling fact at a time when governments, businesses, and residents increasingly rely on networked and cloud-based systems to conduct their day-to-day business. And much of the country’s critical infrastructure—power grids, transportation networks, water distribution systems—depends on computerized systems.

A report in The Hill notes that the nation’s attention has turned to cyber vulnerabilities with the reports of Russian cyberattacks and concerns about the integrity of voting systems and voter records during the 2016 political campaign and election.

ICMA Resources

While these initiatives work their way through the legislative process, you can turn to ICMA’s Cybersecurity topic page to find articles, documents, and other resources to help you protect your organization from cybercrime. Here are some examples:

• Cybersecurity: What’s Your Risk? Six questions managers should ask.
• De-Mystifying Cybersecurity: Advice from local government experts.
• How You Can Protect Your Community from Getting Cyber Hacked. A quick reference checklist for cybersecurity tasks.
• Local Government Guide to Cyber Security. Guidance for local appointed and elected officials.
• New Resource: Cyber Disruption Response Planning Guide. Resources provided by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), equally useful at the local level.
• Cyber Disruption Response Planning Checklist. An expanded checklist is drawn from the NASCIO guide.
• Technology at the Administrator's Side: Empowerment or Security Risk? An article Our nation continues to face the rising threat of cyber-attacks and data breaches. It is important that state and local governments have adequate resources to ensure the protection of their residents’ private and sensitive information.