Keeping online information safe from hackers has been a hot topic in the legislature. Democratic State Senate Majority Whip Michael Padilla aims to change how New Mexico manages cybersecurity.”We’re going to unify how we handle cybersecurity across state government,” said Padilla.In October, New Mexico’s Regulation and Licensing department suffered from a major cybersecurity attack. The agency which oversees the licensing of thousands of businesses across New Mexico had their records hacked into. They’re not the only department that has faced similar threats.Senator Padilla said every government entity has experienced a massive cyberattack in the last two years. In January of 2022, Albuquerque police suffered a cyber-attack as well. Padilla is looking to introduce a piece of legislation that would create a state office of cybersecurity to help prevent those cyberattacks.”We give them a budget; we give them some guardrails and programming into what we want this office to look like. Then we let the professionals take over,” said Padilla.He says the office wouldn’t just protect state government information but local data as well.”We can’t pretend like this doesn’t exist. It’s something we can’t tangibly see. We’re going to require agencies to operate this way. The state government will be operating this way. Immediately, we’re going to tamp down the cyberattacks that we’ve seen affect everybody.”Senator Padilla says if our state doesn’t adopt changes, all transactions from the Income Support Division to the licensing of oil wells could be at risk.Former Republican Representative Rebecca Dow also introduced a cybersecurity bill last year. It aimed to bring 45 million dollars into a statewide cyber-security program, but that bill failed.
Keeping online information safe from hackers has been a hot topic in the legislature. Democratic State Senate Majority Whip Michael Padilla aims to change how New Mexico manages cybersecurity.
“We’re going to unify how we handle cybersecurity across state government,” said Padilla.
In October, New Mexico’s Regulation and Licensing department suffered from a major cybersecurity attack. The agency which oversees the licensing of thousands of businesses across New Mexico had their records hacked into. They’re not the only department that has faced similar threats.
Senator Padilla said every government entity has experienced a massive cyberattack in the last two years. In January of 2022, Albuquerque police suffered a cyber-attack as well. Padilla is looking to introduce a piece of legislation that would create a state office of cybersecurity to help prevent those cyberattacks.
“We give them a budget; we give them some guardrails and programming into what we want this office to look like. Then we let the professionals take over,” said Padilla.
He says the office wouldn’t just protect state government information but local data as well.
“We can’t pretend like this doesn’t exist. It’s something we can’t tangibly see. We’re going to require agencies to operate this way. The state government will be operating this way. Immediately, we’re going to tamp down the cyberattacks that we’ve seen affect everybody.”
Senator Padilla says if our state doesn’t adopt changes, all transactions from the Income Support Division to the licensing of oil wells could be at risk.
Former Republican Representative Rebecca Dow also introduced a cybersecurity bill last year. It aimed to bring 45 million dollars into a statewide cyber-security program, but that bill failed.
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