Mounting state, local government cyberattacks reported

StateScoop reports that significantly more cyberattacks have been targeted at state and local governments in 2023, compared with the year prior. State and local governments experienced 148% more malware attacks and 51% more ransomware incidents during the first eight months of 2023, compared with the same period in 2022, according to a Center for Internet Security report. Moreover, data breaches and other endpoint security service compromises rose by 313% while non-malware intrusions grew by 37% during the same time frame. Escalating cybersecurity threats against state and local government entities have been attributed to the lack of established cybersecurity programs, with inadequate funding, emerging technologies, and increasingly advanced threats noted as some of the hindrances to the development of such programs. Despite such a security gap, organizations at the state and local government levels have bolstered cybersecurity awareness training, identity management, threat detection and response, and other cybersecurity defenses, said the report.