Federal leadership in ransomware detection, response crucial for states

Mounting ransomware attacks against states should prompt the federal government to improve its leadership in helping states curb and respond to such incidents, reports CyberScoop. States have been seeking increased federal government involvement in establishing information security standards, threat intelligence sharing, and research activities, said Delaware Chief Security Officer Solomon Adote during the Fortinet Security Transformation Summit. "We've had to start to lead, and were looking to federal government to lead again," said Adote, who added that combating evolving threats has been made more challenging by emerging technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. Bolstering cyber threat awareness has also been sought by Adote and Virginia Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Aliscia Andrews. Andrews noted that Virginia has hastened state and local agencies' cyber threat preparation and response with a new state law that required cyber incident reporting within 24 hours. "It does nobody any good to hear about something three weeks after the fact. We need to share information quickly," said Andrews.