Suggested lead: A Washington state lawmaker with deep roots in the computer industry hopes to make life online a little more secure. Dan Frizzell has that story.
Wrap (:65 total): High-profile hacks and cyberattacks have made headlines lately, but Zack Hudgins has been working since last year on ways to make things tougher for the bad guys, at least in Washington state. Hudgins, a Democratic state representative from Tukwila, chairs a new House information technology committee in Olympia, and this week he announced a package of cybersecurity bills he’ll be introducing. The goal of the package, Hudgins says, is prevent data breaches in state and local computer systems, and to minimize the damage when hackers do manage to slip into the systems.
HUDGINS: “The bad guys aren’t slowing down in their attacks, and we need to make sure that we’re not just setting standards and then leaving them on the shelf to gather dust. We need to constantly look at those standards and look at our vulnerabilities and fix things and move forward. Kinda updating things for our modern age and make sure that the state is protecting the data as best we can.” [:18].
Hudgins’ bills dovetail closely with the results of a computer-security performance audit released Monday by the state auditor. The 105-day 2015 legislative session opens January 12 in Olympia. At the state Capitol, this is Dan Frizzell.