Can Secretary of State Gorbea make communities care about cybersecurity?

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Leading off

Is your local library still using Windows 95? Does your mayor always fall for those “please enter all of your personal information here to see something cool” schemes?

From local governments to large businesses, ransomware attacks on computer systems appear to be on the rise. Just this week, Sinclair Broadcast Group – Channel 10′s parent company – disclosed that a cyberattack is disrupting significant parts of its business.

While it’s difficult to require private companies to improve their cyber infrastructure, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea is set to announce Wednesday that her office is going to work with cities and towns on a cyber mapping project that could help the municipalities protect themselves against future attacks.

Gorbea has hired Protocol Networks to “perform the work needed to map the network infrastructure in your community,” she wrote in a recent letter that went to the mayor, town manager, or council president in each community.

Gorbea is scheduled to discuss the cyber mapping project at the state’s cybersummit that begins at 9 a.m. today. US Representative James Langevin and representatives from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are among the folks slated to present at the summit. The cyber mapping project is designed to help communities prepare for next year’s elections, Gorbea said. 

When a city or town faces any kind of cyberattack – even if it has no connection to elections – the secretary of state’s office shuts off the community’s access to the state’s central voter registration system until the issue is resolved. That’s not a major problem during off years, but it can cause headaches for the local boards of canvassers leading up to an election.

Gorbea said she had to briefly shut off East Greenwich’s access to the registration station in 2019 when it faced a ransomeware attack.

”This is about minimizing risk across the board,” Gorbea said.

The mapping project is funded by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security and with leftover Help America Vote Act dollars, so it comes at no cost for municipalities.

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My previous column

We hear a lot about how little is happening in Washington, D.C. But when Senator Sheldon Whitehouse started hearing complaints about the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, he led the push for changes. If you missed the column, you can read it here. And all of my columns are on our Rhode Island Commentary page.

Rhode Island Report podcast

Ed Fitzpatrick talks to Jennifer Rourke of the Rhode Island Political Cooperative about its slate of 50 progressive candidates. Listen to all of our podcasts here.

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Thanks for reading. Send comments and suggestions to dan.mcgowan@globe.com, or follow me on Twitter @DanMcGowan. See you tomorrow.

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Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @danmcgowan.

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