Each California agency will get an AI cybersecurity officer
Citing a lack of support from the Trump administration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced a new initiative that would create within every state agency a new role called the AI cybersecurity officer.
To keep pace with changes in cybersecurity, the governor directed all California agencies to establish an AI cyber defense program, which is to be housed in the state’s Cybersecurity Integration Center. The program is intended to allow the state to use AI for the purposes of vulnerability detection, network hardening and incident response.
Newsom additionally called for local governments and critical infrastructure operators to gain expanded access to “advanced” cybersecurity capabilities, such as “AI-enabled defenses.” A press release from the governor’s office Monday claims that the changes are necessary as “cyber threats grow more complex.” “Attacks are faster, more sophisticated, and more frequent, putting at risk the basic systems families count on,” Newsom said in the release.
The announcement arrives weeks after a coordinated cyberattack disrupted the IT systems of water utilities in at least a dozen states. The attack quickly gained national attention and prompted states to boost funding and grow programs designed to secure their water infrastructures. The nonprofit National League of Cities this week announced a new initiative designed to aid local governments in improving their cybersecurity postures. New York state after the attack boosted its cybersecurity grant funding for water utilities from an originally planned $2.5 million to $9 million.
California’s announcement also references breakthroughs in artificial intelligence — it’s been shown that bad actors armed with unrestrained frontier models can quickly identify and act on security vulnerabilities. California officials said they are taking a “proactive approach” to the evolving threat landscape, establishing policy that not only defends against AI-fueled threats, but uses AI to defend. Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, noted in the release the capacity of cyberattacks to “disrupt the essential services Californians rely on every day, including water, power, transportation, and emergency communications.”
Newsom also didn’t pass up an opportunity to cast blame on his chief political adversary. In addition to listing the state’s new actions and past activity related to cybersecurity or artificial intelligence — such as last year’s Frontier AI Act, which requires developers to disclose safety frameworks and report critical safety incidents — Newsom’s office also in its announcement lists several ways in which the president has reduced support for state and local governments. These include cutting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s funding by 30%, ending support for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit-run consortium that has long provided free or inexpensive network monitoring and threat intelligence services to state and local governments.
