Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz listens during a hearing with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the U.S. Capitol on June 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
The National Guard is not faced with the same cybersecurity workforce gaps that many state and local governments are experiencing, said one National Guard Bureau officer.
Staff Sgt. Micah McDonald, a air surveillance technician with the 176th Air Defense Squadron, Alaska Air National Guard, evaluates radar data during exercise Fencing Rice on JBER, June 14, 2016. (U.S. Air National Guard / Staff Sgt. Edward Eagerton)
States called National Guard units dozens of times for ransomware attacks and to protect election systems, according to research from the think tank Third Way.
The new bill would allow the Army and Air Force to create pilot programs in which one state's National Guard unit could help another's respond to cyberattack.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore City Mayor Jack Young, and members of the Maryland Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, assist with food distribution at the Greenmount Recreation Center in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 24, 2020. (Maryland National Guard)