Legislation advancing toward a final vote in the Alaska Legislature would allow the governor to declare similar cyberattacks a formal “disaster,” unlocking quicker funding and emergency responses
Testifying in the Legislature on Friday, Mat-Su Borough IT director Eric Wyatt said the new legislation would have made things better.Bryan Fisher, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, is a member of the “disaster policy cabinet,” which advises governors on whether a disaster should be declared.
“There might be statutory restrictions that prohibit it from happening at all,” said Nils Andreassen, executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, which represents local governments and is supporting the bill.says that a cybersecurity disaster could involve an attack that affects “critical infrastructure” in the state or “an information system owned or operated by the state or a political subdivision of the state.
, when members of the National Guard were flown in to remove snow from rooftops and keep them from collapsing and causing a bigger problem.“It’s not a frivolous thing. Nobody takes this lightly. It’s a declaration at the local level that they need help,” he said. The biggest obstacle to the bill becoming law isn’t something related to cybersecurity or the bill itself — it’s the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the end, only three far-right members of the House voted against the bill: Reps. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, David Eastman, R-Wasilla, and Christopher Kurka, R-Wasilla.
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