A task force made up of more than 60 experts spanning government, industry, education and the health and nonprofit sectors released a report Thursday that makes sweeping recommendations to the public and private sectors on combatting ransomware, which it calls a global national-security risk. The report urges the United States to embrace a whole-of-government campaign, from the White House on down, including interagency task forces, response and recovery funds and industry-led threat intelligence sharing. “Unless there is a comprehensive, top-down coordinated and resourced effort put in place, operationally focused, this is just going to keep getting worse," said Philip Reiner, chief executive of the Institute for Security and Technology, which created the panel last December. Benjamin Freed reports.

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Taking 911 to the cloud

The 911 technology firm RapidDeploy on Thursday announced it’s raised $29 million in Series B funding, which the company said it will use to expand its reach into the market and further develop its cloud-based technologies for next-generation emergency services in the United States, where the South African company is growing its business. “If we go back to when RapidDeploy arrived in America in June 2017, many of the vendors in the conference hall tell me to go back to Africa because 911 isn’t in the cloud in America,” said the company's founder, Steve Raucher. Colin Wood has the story.

Cyber is infrastructure, gov tells Congress

Hawaii Gov. David Ige told members of the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday that any infrastructure package that Congress passes should include specific funding for cybersecurity, a feature that the current $2 trillion proposal being put forward by President Joe Biden currently lacks. ““The cyber threat is a nationwide threat because we’re all connected,” Ige said. "The weakest link in the network is where those bad actors will enter the network and wreak havoc." Ben has more.

Kansas to modernize 40-year-old unemployment system

Kansas will modernize its unemployment system by the end of 2022, under a new bill signed by Gov. Laura Kelly this week to rectify the state’s currently slow and fraud-prone unemployment system. The new law will overhaul the state’s 40-year old unemployment IT infrastructure, starting with the formation of a 13-member, bipartisan council to oversee the project. The council will also be in charge of recommending technology upgrades to the state’s UI system, including enhancements to data-sharing, verification, security and system responsiveness. Ryan Johnston has details.

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How agencies are improving network visibility and operations

More agencies are turning to AI-assisted operations platforms to collect, unify and analyze data across their networks. One of the most recent success stories in this endeavor comes from the Census Bureau’s successful implementation of the first ever online census. With a data-centered approach more agencies are able to improve backend operations, uptime and respond to security anomalies automatically. Read more in the report.