Water utility cyberattacks product of expedient decisions, IT staff shortages, experts say

Last week’s cyberattacks against water and wastewater facilities in Minnesota have actually affected at least 12 states, according to ABC News. The federal government has said it’s looking into whether Iran is responsible for the coordinated attack, but has not formally attributed it to any particular party. On the Priorities Podcast, Patrick Gillespie, OT practice director at the firm GuidePoint Security, said the attacks are not sophisticated, but opportunistic: “The reason this is happening right now is these are inherently insecure devices that are directly connected to the internet.” Mauricio Papa, a computer science professor at the University of Tulsa, said that although cybersecurity practitioners have warned against such vulnerabilities for decades, attacks like this continue to occur because “technology is always evolving … and we want to connect everything to the internet, it’s so convenient.”

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The Department of Justice has announced it’s expanding its strategy for combating fraud in Medicaid, SNAP and other taxpayer-funded programs by deepening partnerships with state governments aimed at improving data sharing, investigations and fraud detection. Work with Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina is designed to improve information sharing, identify fraud earlier and coordinate prosecutions across jurisdictions.

A recent report from the National Conference of State Legislatures outlined bipartisan policy recommendations for strengthening state childcare systems, including addressing disparities in tech systems between state agencies and local providers, and the need for better data-sharing across agencies. In an interview, Jenna Bannon, associate director of the conference’s children and families program, explains why it’s critical to use technologies that simplify state systems.

The National Governors Association has announced a new partnership with RAISE US, a nonprofit workforce initiative launched in June by two former governors, aimed at helping states develop effective AI workforce initiatives. The new, $1 million project will, according to organizers, “identify and amplify new policy models.”

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