Tag: State

February 2, 2022

Legislators in Maryland on Wednesday heard testimony from supporters and detractors of a bill that would set stringent privacy requirements on companies that collect biometric signifiers, including fingerprints, voiceprints, facial scans and retinal images from their customers. House Bill 259, […]

January 4, 2022

North Dakota Chief Information Officer Shawn Riley told StateScoop Monday that states should focus on tangible, public-facing projects to demonstrate the utility of technologies like blockchain, smart contracts and non-fungible tokens in government. Riley, who has led North Dakota’s technology […]

December 13, 2021

North Carolina Chief Information Officer Jim Weaver announced Monday the hiring of Cherie Givens, an attorney and former federal contractor, as the state’s first chief privacy officer. In the role, Givens will be responsible for managing data-privacy risks and ensuring […]

September 17, 2021

The North Dakota State Auditor’s office this week launched an extensive review of many of the state’s IT assets, including the machines and electronic systems it uses to conduct elections. The process, State Auditor Joshua Gallion said in a press […]

September 8, 2021

With the acknowledgment that mobile voting is gradually becoming more common across U.S. elections, a think tank at the University of California, Berkeley announced Wednesday it’s assembling a group of cybersecurity experts and former election officials to study the controversial […]

July 7, 2021

Citing the ongoing threat of ransomware attacks, a group of nine associations of state and local government officials sent a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders asking them to include a new cybersecurity grant program in either an infrastructure spending package […]

May 3, 2021

The office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul admitted last week that it was the victim of a ransomware attack that included the theft and publication of agency files. The announcement arrived about three weeks after a data breach was […]

April 29, 2021

A task force made up of more than 60 experts spanning government, industry, education and the health and nonprofit sectors released a report Thursday that makes sweeping recommendations to the public and private sectors on combatting ransomware, which it calls […]

March 22, 2021

As the House prepares to take up the issue this week of statehood for the District of Columbia, a new national poll finds that 54% of likely voters think D.C. should be a state, a record high level of support. […]

September 8, 2020

Illinois Chief Information Officer Ron Guerrier stepped down Friday after 18 months with the state government, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. In a string of tweets, Pritzker, who appointed Guerrier as his CIO and secretary of the Illinois Department of Innovation […]

July 28, 2020

The Colorado secretary of state’s office said Tuesday it is partnering with the security firm Synack to conduct penetration tests of its election systems ahead of the presidential vote. In an interview with StateScoop, Trevor Timmons, the chief information officer […]

June 4, 2020

A controversial California bill aimed at allowing businesses and government agencies to use facial recognition on customers stalled in the state legislature Wednesday, relieving privacy activists who argued the bill’s passage would’ve given too much leeway on how the controversial […]

June 1, 2020

Minnesota technology officials said Sunday that the state’s networks were inundated over the weekend by malicious attempts to knock government agencies offline, though those efforts were successfully repelled. In a statement Sunday, Tarek Tomes, Minnesota’s chief information officer and the […]

March 9, 2020

Arizona officials said Friday that J.R. Sloan, who was named the state’s interim chief information officer last August, will lead the state’s IT efforts on a permanent basis. Sloan had stepped into the CIO job following the resignation of Morgan […]

March 4, 2020

A bill that would enable Wyoming residents to display their IDs on their phones or tablets as a supplemental option to physical IDs passed the state Senate on Monday. The legislation, which will be reconciled with a House version approved […]

February 25, 2020

Many state leaders say they want to create a government that uses technology to become more efficient and convenient for its residents, but in Connecticut, there are regulations impeding such development. Legislation introduced earlier this month by Gov. Ned Lamont […]

February 20, 2020

The Arkansas Department of Transformation and Shared Services announced Thursday it’s recruited Joshua McGee, a research assistant professor at the University of Arkansas and public policy researcher, as the state’s newest chief data officer. McGee, who will serve in the […]

January 7, 2020

The website of the Texas Department of Agriculture was briefly defaced Tuesday morning and replaced with an image of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general who was killed last week in a U.S. airstrike. A group of hackers referring to themselves […]

December 9, 2019

State agencies’ data is increasingly at risk to ransomware attack, in part due to poor backup and recovery practices, according to findings from a new survey. Among state IT and agency leaders polled, 69% said it would take their agency […]

December 6, 2019

The $9 billion plan the Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday to expand 5G coverage into rural areas was criticized Thursday by lawmakers and state officials who say there’s little economic or technical rationale for building 5G infrastructure in rural areas […]