HB1297, the bill that would revise Florida’s current cybersecurity governance, is close to being approved by lawmakers following several incidents across the state, including a ransomware attack against Broward County Public Schools and the hacking of a local water treatment facility, reports StateScoop. The bill is based on a January report released by a 15-member task force and would give the Florida Digital Service more cybersecurity duties, such as creating a statewide plan that will be updated yearly, developing cybersecurity trainings for state employees and creating a 19-member Cybersecurity Advisory Council. Several state House committees have already unanimously approved the bill, while a companion legislation is being introduced to the state Senate. Lawmakers are also in the process of approving a spending plan for the 2022 fiscal year, which increases cybersecurity funding by $31.6 million. The added funding will be used to improve the state’s threat-assessment and endpoint detection tools, upgrade government websites and strengthen industrial control systems.
Jill Aitoro leads editorial for SC Media, and content strategy for parent company CyberRisk Alliance. She 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy.
Attackers deliver phishing emails luring targets into installing the fraudulent GlobalProtect tool, which when executed triggers in-background malware loading during the setup process.
APT32's most recent attacks involved the compromise of four hosts with different Windows Registry keys and scheduled tasks that facilitated the deployment of Google Chrome cookie exfiltration, Cobalt Strike beacons, and embedded DLL payload loaders.