The US Could Appoint a Cybersecurity Leader for Every State
The USA is considering legislation that would protect local governments by requiring the appointment of a cybersecurity leader for each state.
Backers of the Cybersecurity State Coordinator Act of 2020 say the proposed law will improve intelligence sharing between state and federal governments and speed up incident response times in the event of a cyber-attack.
Under the legislation, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would be tasked with appointing an employee of the agency in each state to serve as a cybersecurity state coordinator.
Among their responsibilities, these cybersecurity leaders would need to:
- Serve as a principal federal cybersecurity risk advisor
- Coordinate efforts to prepare for, respond to and remediate cyber-attacks
- Raise awareness of the financial, technical, and operational resources available to nonfederal entities from the federal government
- Support training, exercises, and planning for continuity of operations to expedite as swift a recovery as possible from cybersecurity incidents
