Griffo Wants NY to Review Cyberattack Preparedness
State Sen. Joseph Griffo is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to bring state agencies, county leaders and private sector experts together to determine just how prepared New York is for a major cyberattack.
The Rome Republican sent a letter to Hochul on August 3 following reports of cyberattacks targeting water systems in at least seven states across the country.
Griffo says New York should take notice.
“These potentially crippling and far-reaching attacks have exposed vulnerabilities and shortcomings in the delivery of important resources,” Griffo wrote to Hochul. “It is now incumbent upon New York to ensure that we can identify potential threats and are prepared if a similar attack takes place here.”
His proposal would bring together state agencies, representatives from the private sector and county leaders from across New York. The goal would be to assess the state's current level of preparedness and determine its ability to prevent and respond to online attacks.
Griffo believes that type of cooperation is important, especially as more of the services people depend on every day become tied to technology.
“This public-private collaboration is crucial to efforts to negate the effects of these attacks in New York and to hopefully eliminate them altogether in the future,” he wrote.
Cybersecurity is not a new issue for Griffo.
Several years ago, while serving as chairman of the state Senate Banking Committee, he brought six Senate committees to the Griffiss Institute in Rome for a hearing on New York's cybersecurity preparedness. Experts in law enforcement, finance and computer science testified about the state's ability to deal with cyber threats. According to Griffo's office, it was the largest joint hearing in state Senate history.
Since then, the threat has only become more widespread.
Local governments, hospitals, health systems, schools and businesses have all found themselves targets of online attacks. In his letter, Griffo called cyberattacks “the new normal of our time.”
The concern becomes even greater when hackers target something as basic and essential as a community's water system. A successful attack on critical infrastructure has the potential to create problems that extend well beyond computers and stolen data.
“Given the significant economic, social and security issues that arise when a cyberattack does occur, we must do everything that we can to stay ahead of those who intend to harm the citizens and businesses of New York State,” Griffo wrote.
Griffo has also supported legislation and other initiatives aimed at protecting New Yorkers from malicious cyber activity.
Now, he's asking Hochul to get the key players in the same room before New York finds itself responding to the type of attack already reported elsewhere in the country.
Here's the letter sent by Senator Joe Griffo:
