New York cyber fusion center to relocate to CIS

The New York State Intelligence Center has relocated to the Center for Internet Security in East Greenbush, N.Y.

The move puts the state’s primary cybersecurity protection agency under the same roof as one of the nation’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to enhancing cybersecurity readiness and response.

“New York State has been actively putting in place new measures to bolster our cybersecurity and help safeguard our citizens and institutions against threats to our technology infrastructure,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This alliance of top cyber-experts will help foster new coordination between government, law enforcement and public safety resources so we can better safeguard our cyber-systems against attack.”

The New York State Intelligence Center, led and managed by the Division of State Police, was established in August 2003 as an “all-crimes” fusion center responsible for gathering, analyzing and disseminating information and intelligence to a wide variety of state, local, territorial and tribal governments.

The Center for Internet Security is a global nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance cybersecurity readiness and response of the public and private sectors. The work of the CIS includes a joint security operations center that provides cyber-warnings and analysis to promote information sharing throughout all levels of government.

This new partnership creates a joint operations and analytic unit to more effectively analyze and respond to cyber-occurrences including, but not limited to, network intrusions, hacking attempts and efforts to disrupt the normal operation of public and private sectors such as the energy and electric grids and financial institutions.

William Pelgrin, who was the chief cybersecurity officer for the New York State Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination from 2002 to 2010, leads CIS. Before that, he served as the director of the New York State Office of Technology.

“The days of ‘going it alone’ are over — we will be successful only if we work together in a meaningful and integrated way,” Pelgrin said. “I am so pleased to partner with DHS and New York State to create this new type of information sharing resource that helps our SLTT governments in assessing the threats they face and developing effective defenses and responses.”