Nearly $375M in state, local government cyber grants unveiled by DHS

Increasingly prevalent ransomware attacks against state and local governments across the U.S. have prompted the Department of Homeland Security to unveil nearly $375 million in additional funding part of the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program aimed at strengthening state and local government cyber resilience, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Applications for seeking the new funds, which are handled by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will be open until Oct. 6. "In today's threat environment, any locality is vulnerable to a devastating cyber attack targeted at a hospital, school, water, or other system," said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Such grants have been announced after a series of ransomware attacks across the U.S. in recent months, including an intrusion against a coastal Mississippi community last month, an incident that disrupted Dallas in May, and an attack that impacted Spartanburg, South Carolina's IT and phone systems in April.