Category Archives: Security

Minnesota’s Whole-of-State Cybersecurity Plan provides security for entities such as Woodbury

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Route Fifty reports…

In Woodbury, Minnesota, the city’s 11-person IT department faced a difficult decision. The cybersecurity hardware and software they adopted three years ago was up for renewal, and the new price was more than they wanted to pay.

For a CrowdStrike antivirus solution, the city had a 15% discount for the first year through a Center for Internet Security, or CIS, program. The city paid $51 for each of its 400 devices, “so our cost initially was $20,400 for the year,” said Robert James, Woodbury’s information and communications technology director. “When the renewal came around, it was without the initial discount, so it was $24,000 for the year.”

But the Minnesota Whole-of-State Cybersecurity Plan offered a way forward. Developed by the Minnesota Information Technology Services’ Cybersecurity Task Force, the plan offers managed detection and response capabilities through a whole-of-state cybersecurity plan.

They decided to move forward with it…

Woodbury was one of the first localities to sign on.

“Through the Minnesota whole-of-state program, the cost will be $46 per device when the grant program runs out” in July 2027, James said. “We will save more than $14 per device and get more security deployment than with our deployment through CIS. Since we have added more devices in total, this will add up to almost $7,000 in savings for the city every year.”

About 125 Minnesota entities, including Woodbury, have been using the setup since February. Another 80 are coming online soon.

Solar storms bring beautiful Northern Lights in MN but disrupt precision agriculture

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While most of us were gleefully chasing down the Northern Lights last weekend, the New York Times (via Yahoo News) reports on another side…

The powerful geomagnetic storm that cast the northern lights’ vivid colors across the Northern Hemisphere over the weekend also caused some navigational systems in tractors and other farming equipment to break down at the height of planting season, suppliers and farmers said.

Many farmers have come to rely on the equipment, which uses GPS and other navigational technology and helps them to plant more efficiently and precisely by keeping rows straight and avoiding gaps or overlap. But over the weekend, some of those operations in the Midwest, as well as in other parts of the United States and Canada, temporarily ground to a halt.

In Minnesota, some farmers who had planned to spend Friday night sowing seeds were hamstrung by the outages. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this,” said Patrick O’Connor, owner of a farm about 80 miles south of Minneapolis that mainly grows corn and soybean.

O’Connor said that after being rained out for two weeks, he got into his tractor around 5 p.m., hoping to spend the night planting corn. When he received a warning about his GPS system, he called a technical help line and was directed to a message saying there was an outage and nothing could be done to fix it.

Ag Web talked about what it means for farmers…

It’s all happening right as farmers are rushing to get the 2024 crop planted.

“The good news is those radio blackouts for GPS may only last for a few hours or half a day,” says Dr. Terry Griffin a Professor & Cropping Systems Economist at Kansas State University. “My message is: if this is a radio blackout then patience is your best bet. Go check the NOAA website and if the planetary K-Index is red instead of green then go have an early lunch.”

Beyond the inconvenience of delayed field work, there could be real dollars lost to such an extended outage.

From an agricultural perspective, Dr. Griffin has been studying the economic impacts of GPS outages for several years. He’s found that even a few hours to half a day of lost GPS signal can come with a cost for farmers. That’s especially true for farmers who miss an optimum planting or harvesting window. Pushing field work later into the season can ultimately cost them yield and performance during the season.

“There are there are some real penalties and real dollars that come into effect when we’re not able to do field work,” Dr. Griffin said.

That said, it depends on the time of year and the regions impacted. A January disruption would likely have less impact than one during planting or harvest.

Dr. Griffin says while GPS satellites have been in use and in orbit for many years – the first launched in 1978 – civilian use of GPS is relatively new.
He believes these new space weather events will come with a learning curve.

“This was the first solar cycle maximum we’ve had that’s going to be big with satellite communications,” Dr. Griffin said. “So, we’re going to find out some things.”

It’s not yet archived but an hour ago, I heard on MPR an interview with the MN farmer from the NY Times article. He talked about how it isn’t just a matter of using the GPS to make sure the rows in the field are straight. The GPS helps keep track of the soil quality, historical needs of the plants and more and distributes seeds and nutrients based location. So it made sense to wait until the solar storm was over rather than forge ahead using “tradition” sowing practices.

Also when asked if he thought this might happen again, the farmer said yes – if it’s happened once, it will likely happen again.

Interesting both in terms of the things the engineers and scientists need to learn about all aspects of precision agriculture and the value that the farmers put on using precision ag tools!

 

 

 

MN House passes HF3488: protections for minors appearing in online media

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The MN Session Daily reports...

Hollywood is full of stories about childhood actors reaching stardom and then falling hard, often with tragic endings.

That same sad pattern is being replayed on social media platforms, says Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids), where some parents or managers are exploiting young children for profit without any concern for their social or mental well-being.

“This can be big money,” he said before the House passed HF3488, a bill he sponsors that aims to stop this financial exploitation. Following Wednesday’s 103-26 vote, the bill is headed to the Senate.

Stephenson cited a case where Kyle Fisher, father of twin girls Taytum and Oakley, earns between $10,000 and $20,000 for just one post of them on an Instagram account with more than 2 million followers.

If parents are making money off the work their children do to create lucrative online content, they deserve fair compensation, Stephenson said.

To that end, the bill would require a trust account and payment for the content created using images and videos of a minor in online social media, and for the trust to be maintained until the minor reaches age 18. …

The bill would require that records be kept on minors who appear in at least 30% of the content creator’s videos, when such videos generate income, including the minor’s name, compensation generated, and how much was paid to the minor’s trust account.

Further, the bill would require that records be readily accessible to the minor and it would allow the minor to request to delete the content with their likeness at any time after they turn 13.

The minor, or an adult previously depicted as a minor, could sue for damages if any bill provisions are violated.

FCC Fines Largest Wireless Carriers for Sharing Location Data

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From the FCC…

Today, the Federal Communications Commission fined the nation’s largest wireless carriers for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent and without taking reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure.  Sprint and T-Mobile – which have merged since the investigation began – face fines of more than $12 million and $80 million, respectively.  AT&T is fined more than $57 million, and Verizon is fined almost $47 million.

“Our communications providers have access to some of the most sensitive information about us.  These carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them. Here, we are talking about some of the most sensitive data in their possession: customers’ real-time location information, revealing where they go and who they are,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.  “As we resolve these cases – which were first proposed by the last Administration – the Commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and making sure they fulfill their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau investigations of the four carriers found that each carrier sold access to its customers’ location information to “aggregators,” who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.  In doing so, each carrier attempted to offload its obligations to obtain customer consent onto downstream recipients of location information, which in many instances meant that no valid customer consent was obtained.  This initial failure was compounded when, after becoming aware that their safeguards were ineffective, the carriers continued to sell access to location information without taking reasonable measures to protect it from unauthorized access.

Under the law, including section 222 of the Communications Act, carriers are required to take reasonable measures to protect certain customer information, including location information.  Carriers are also required to maintain the confidentiality of such customer information and to obtain affirmative, express customer consent before using, disclosing, or allowing access to such information.  These obligations apply equally when carriers share customer information with third parties.

“The protection and use of sensitive personal data such as location information is sacrosanct,” said Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau and Chair of its Privacy and Data Protection Task Force.  “When placed in the wrong hands or used for nefarious purposes, it puts all of us at risk.  Foreign adversaries and cybercriminals have prioritized getting their hands on this information, and that is why ensuring service providers have reasonable protections in place to safeguard customer location data and valid consent for its use is of the highest priority for the Enforcement Bureau.”

The investigations that led to today’s fines started following public reports that customers’ location information was being disclosed by the largest American wireless carriers without customer consent or other legal authorization to a Missouri Sheriff through a “location-finding service” operated by Securus, a provider of communications services to correctional facilities, to track the location of numerous individuals.  Yet, even after being made aware of this unauthorized access, all four carriers continued to operate their programs without putting in place reasonable safeguards to ensure that the dozens of location-based service providers with access to their customers’ location information were actually obtaining customer consent.

The Forfeiture Orders announced today finalize Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL) issued against these carriers in February 2020.  The fine amount for AT&T and Sprint are unchanged since the NAL stage.  Both the T-Mobile and Verizon fines were reduced following further review of the parties’ submissions in response to the NALs.  The law does not permit forfeiture amounts for specified violations to escalate after issuance of an NAL.

The Forfeiture Orders are available here:

In 2023, the Chairwoman established the Privacy and Data Protection Task Force, an FCC staff working group focused on coordinating across the agency on the rulemaking, enforcement, and public awareness needs in the privacy and data protection sectors, including data breaches (such as those involving telecommunications providers) and vulnerabilities involving third-party vendors that service regulated communications providers.  More information on the Task Force is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/privacy-and-data-protection-task-force.

It’s like finding your toddler in the backyard alone. Happy you found her, yet so many questions.

EVENTS: Tech classes for nonprofits from MN Council of Nonprofits

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I thought the following classes from MN Council of Nonprofits might be of interest to some readers…

Tech Tools and Techniques to Boost Efficiency
Wednesday, May 22  |  1pm – 3pm  |  Virtual
Discover concrete ways to take advantage of technology to complete tasks, get work done, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks, from your inbox to workflow automation.
Register

Intentionally Building Community Across Cultures
Wednesday, May 22  |  9am – 11am  |  Virtual
Explore the ways biases have interfered in building authentic relationships with colleagues and community members.
Register

Spotlight: Cybersecurity for Nonprofits
Friday, June 21  |  9am – 3:30pm  |  Virtual
In this day-long training, learn need-to-know trends in cybersecurity that will help prepare you for a safe and secure future including AI, ransomware, and cyber insurance.
Register

MN5409 introduced: Requiring age verification for websites with material harmful to minors

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Yesterday…

HF. 5409,A bill for an act relating to consumer protection; requiring age verification for websites with material harmful to minors; providing for enforcement by the attorney general; creating a private right of action; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 325F.

The bill was read for the first time and referred to the Committee on Commerce Finance and Policy.

Here’s the bill as introduced…

A bill for an act
relating to consumer protection; requiring age verification for websites with material
harmful to minors; providing for enforcement by the attorney general; creating a
private right of action; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter
325F.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

[325F.1791] AGE VERIFICATION FOR INTERNET CONTENT
HARMFUL TO MINORS.

Subdivision 1.

Definitions.

(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the meanings given.

(b) “Host” means to provide the technology and resources necessary to store and maintain
the electronic files and applications associated with a website on a computer server, in order
for the website to be accessible via the Internet. For purposes of this section, an Internet
service provider does not host a website.

(c) “Identifying information” means any information that is linked or reasonably linkable
to an identified or identifiable natural person.

(d) “Interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access
software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer
server, including (1) a service or system that provides access to the Internet, and (2) systems
operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions.

(e) “Intimate parts” means the genitals, pubic area, or anus of an individual. If the
individual is female, intimate parts includes a partially or fully exposed nipple.

(f) “Material harmful to minors” means a text, sound recording, image, video, or similar
representation or depiction that:

(1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards and evaluating the
material (i) as a whole, and (ii) with respect to minors, would determine is designed to
appeal to or pander to the prurient interest;

(2) in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, exploits, is devoted to, or
principally consists of representations or descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated
display or depiction of intimate parts, sexual contact, sexual penetration, bestiality,
sadomasochistic abuse, excretory functions, exhibitions, or other sexual acts; and

(3) taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

(g) “Sexual contact” means the intentional touching of intimate parts or intentional
touching with seminal fluid or sperm onto another person’s body.

(h) “Sexual penetration” means any of the following acts:

(1) sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anal intercourse; or

(2) any intrusion, however slight, into the genital or anal openings of an individual by
another’s body part or an object used by another for this purpose.

(i) “Shares or distributes” means to display or present material or make material available
for download, with or without consideration.

Subd. 2.

Age verification required.

(a) A person who knowingly (1) shares or distributes
material that is harmful to minors on a website where the material appears on 25 percent or
more of the webpages viewed on the website in any calendar month, or (2) hosts a website
that meets the criteria under clause (1) must verify that any individual who is a resident of
Minnesota or who is located in Minnesota at the time of the attempted access is 18 years
of age or older.

(b) It is a violation of this section to allow an individual to access a website identified
under paragraph (a) without verifying that the individual is 18 years of age or older. Required
age verification must be conducted through the use of:

(1) a commercially available database that is regularly used by businesses or governmental
entities to verify age and identity; or

(2) any other commercially reasonable method to verify age and identity approved by
the commissioner of commerce.

(c) The commissioner of commerce may review and approve reliable methods to verify
age and identity for purposes of this section. The commissioner’s approval under this
paragraph is not subject to the rulemaking provisions of chapter 14 and section 14.386 does
not apply.

Subd. 3.

Data privacy.

(a) A person who performs the age verification required by
subdivision 2 must not retain any identifying information submitted by an individual to
verify age.

(b) A person who knowingly retains identifying information of an individual in violation
of paragraph (a) is liable to the individual for damages resulting from the retention, including
reasonable attorney fees and costs as ordered by the court.

Subd. 4.

Enforcement; civil penalties.

(a) A person who accesses a website without
verifying the person’s age in violation of this section may report the violation to the attorney
general. Upon receipt of a report made under this paragraph, the attorney general must
investigate and may bring a civil enforcement action and recover the relief provided in
section 8.31. Each instance that a website is accessed in violation of this section constitutes
a separate violation.

(b) The parent or legal guardian of a minor who accesses a website without verifying
the minor’s age in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the person who
violated this section to recover damages, together with costs and disbursements, including
reasonable attorney fees, and receive other equitable relief determined by the court. In
addition to any other damages and relief awarded, a person who violates this section may
be liable for a civil penalty of not more than $25,000 per violation.

Subd. 5.

Limitations.

Nothing in this section imposes an obligation or liability on an
Internet service provider or the user of an interactive computer service.

MN House moves forward a bill to improve courthouse security – including cyber security

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Session Daily reports...

Courthouse security, both physical and in cyberspace, plus pay boosts for courtroom interpreters and those who do mental health examinations in civil commitment and criminal proceedings are the main items set to benefit from a $36 million proposal.

Sponsored by Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn (DFL-Roseville), HF5245, as amended, was approved by the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee Thursday and sent to the House Ways and Means Committee.

District courts would be the largest beneficiary at $32 million for the 2024-25 biennium; the Supreme Court would receive $4 million, with $3.5 million of that to enhance cybersecurity in all state judiciary system courts.

MN bill SF4874 (reporting of cybercrime) referred to Committee on Rules and Administration

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Minnesota Senate Agenda reports…

Senator Dziedzic from the Committee on State and Local Government and Veterans, to which was referred

S.F. No. 4874: A bill for an act relating to cybersecurity; requiring reporting of cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in Minnesota; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 16E.

Reports the same back with the recommendation that the bill be amended and when so amended the bill do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

Pursuant to Joint Rule 2.03, the bill was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

CHIEF SENATE AUTHOR: WIKLUND

Pro comments:

  • Cyber attacks are happening and MN would benefit from a better plan
  • MNIT will share info with others in real time and what and how but not who

Testifier from MNIT:
This is basics to form relationships

Testifier from Chicago Lakes School:
This would help protect schools, students and families from ALL schools
Better communication helps stop attacks from spreading

Here is the bill as introduced…

Continue reading →

EVENT April 5: HF 4749 Cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in MN reporting required

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April 5, the MN House Committee on State and Local Government Finance and Policy will discuss HF 4749 (Bahner) Cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in Minnesota reporting required. You can attend the meeting or watch remotely…

Friday, April 5, 2024 , 8:30 AM

State and Local Government Finance and Policy

Chair: Rep. Ginny Klevorn
Location: Room 5
Agenda:

Pending re-referral: HF 4757 (Stephenson) Cannabis regulations modified.
Pending re-referral: HF 4959 (Pinto) Task Force on Holistic and Effective Responses to Illicit Drug Use established, report required, and money appropriated.
HF 4890 (Elkins) Provisions covering technology platform, pharmacy benefit manager, and data protection in vendor contracts changed.
HF 4972 (Freiberg) Notaries electronic database changes made.
HF 4748 (Bahner) Department of Information Technology Services discretionary powers and duties clarified, and conforming changes made.
HF 4749 (Bahner) Cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in Minnesota reporting required.
HF 4798 (Klevorn) State government reporting requirement repealed.
HF 4815 (Klevorn) Required date for uncollected debt report changed.
HANDOUTS: Handouts MUST BE IN PDF FORMAT and emailed to the committee administrator by 12 p.m. (noon) the business day before the hearing. If you are bringing hard copies, bring 40 copies. Note: submitted written testimony is public and will be included in the official committee record. It may be posted to the committee webpage if received by deadline.
TESTIFYING: Testimony is limited. The number of testifiers and length of time permitted is at the discretion of the chair, and is subject to change. Please plan accordingly. If you would like to testify, please email the committee administrator by 12 p.m. (noon) the business day before the hearing.
DOCUMENTS: Meeting documents may be found on the State and Local Government Finance and Policy webpage.
VIEWING: This hearing may be viewed on the House webcast schedule page. All video events are closed captioned with automatically generated captions.
*Agenda items (including bills) may be added or removed, and/or order may change.
o For further information on accommodations, please visit FAQs for Disability Access or contact the LCC Accessibility Coordinator at accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov
o If you are having accessibility or usability problems with any Minnesota Legislative website or software, please send your comments to the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form
o To request legislative services for American Sign Language (ASL), Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) closed captioning services, or live language interpretation services for Hmong, Somali, or Spanish speakers to testify, please contact the Committee Administrator as soon as possible.

Bills Added

HF4757(Stephenson)
Cannabis regulations modified.

HF4890(Elkins)
Provisions covering technology platform, pharmacy benefit manager, and data protection in vendor contracts changed.

HF4959(Pinto)
Task Force on Holistic and Effective Responses to Illicit Drug Use established, report required, and money appropriated.

HF4972(Freiberg)
Notaries electronic database changes made.

HF4748(Bahner)
Department of Information Technology Services discretionary powers and duties clarified, and conforming changes made.

HF4749(Bahner)
Cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in Minnesota reporting required.

HF4798(Klevorn)
State government reporting requirement repealed.

HF4815(Klevorn)
Required date for uncollected debt report changed.

Attachments:

OPPORTUNITY: Opening in Minnesota Cybersecurity Task Force

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The Minnesota Secretary of State reports on an opportunity that might interest some readers…

Minnesota Cybersecurity Task Force
Membership requirements are based on and conform to Public Law 117-58. In summary:

  • The Chief Information Officer (CIO), the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), or equivalent official of the eligible entity;
  • If the eligible entity is a state (including territories), then representatives from counties, cities, and towns within the jurisdiction of the eligible entity;
  • Institutions of public education and health within the jurisdiction of the eligible entity; and
  • As appropriate, representatives of rural, suburban, and high-population jurisdictions.
  • At least one half of the representatives of the Cybersecurity Planning Committee must have professional experience relating to cybersecurity or information technology

The task force will additionally invite close participation in its decisions from members of the legislature. Four ex officio participants are invited for formal designation by the leaders in the Minnesota Senate and Minnesota House of Representatives.

MN Commerce joins $1.5 million multistate securities settlement against crypto platform

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There are so many interesting things happening because of broadband these days: telehealth, remote work, precision agriculture and then there are some that are less easy to fully understand, at least for me. So, I’m starting to track those topics more and want to share what I learn, including today’s announcement from the Minnesota Department of Commerce …

The Minnesota Department of Commerce is one of multiple states to enter into a settlement with TradeStation Crypto, Inc. The settlement resolves the investigation into TradeStation’s cryptocurrency interest-earning program. See consent order.

TradeStation is a Florida-based corporation that provides cryptocurrency-asset-related financial services to retail customers and institutional customers in the United States, including investing and trading services. From February 2021 to June 2022, TradeStation offered a cryptocurrency interest-earning program to Minnesota investors. Under this program, investors passively earned interest on crypto assets by loaning them to TradeStation. TradeStation maintained total discretion over the revenue-generating activities utilized to earn returns for investors. The company offered and promoted its crypto interest-earning program in Minnesota and the United States at large via its website and various platforms.

TradeStation is alleged to have failed to comply with Minnesota securities registration requirements and, as a result, offered and sold securities in Minnesota that were unregistered or did not meet an exemption for registration as required by state law.  …

The $1.5 million multistate settlement, on behalf of 51 United States jurisdictions, is the result of a North American Securities Administration Association (NASAA) task force of eight state securities regulators from Alabama, California, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin. The task force determined that during the offering period, TradeStation engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities via its cryptocurrency interest-earning program.

In Minnesota alone, there were at least 155 active investor digital asset trading accounts collectively valued at almost $300,000.

TradeStation will pay each state a fine of $29,411.76, for a total of almost $1.5 million. The company will also cease offering, selling, or renewing its crypto interest earning program until such activities are compliant with applicable state and federal securities laws. TradeStation has repaid investors, including interest and earnings.

They offer assistance if you have a crypto currency issue:

Minnesota Consumer Service Center

Minnesota consumers and businesses with concerns or complaints about crypto investments or other securities concerns can contact Commerce’s Consumer Service Center:

OPPORTUNITY: New Course Alert: Cyber Investigator Interactive Game

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In part, I’m sharing this because I want someone to attend and tell me about it. But also, it’s a great opportunity to get folks interested in cyber security and that would be a nice industry cluster for rural Minnesota! From the nonprofit, ITExperience…

We are Introducing our new Cyber Investigator Interactive game

You will be able to Join a team of cybersecurity investigators as they respond to a series of different cyber-attacks. Travel through three different industries to help them conduct interviews, stop the attacks, solve puzzles, and restore things to normal.

Duration: 1: 30mins

Do you want to have fun playing a game and also learn a lot about how cyber detectives work on a day-to-day basis?

Register with the link below

https://itexperience.org/itexperience-cyber-detectives-unleashed-course/

MN bill introduced: HF4456, Establishing the Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, and Media Literacy Advisory Council;

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The Journal of the House reports...

Feist introduced:
H. F. No. 4456, A bill for an act relating to education; establishing the Digital Citizenship, Internet Safety, and
Media Literacy Advisory Council; requiring a report.
The bill was read for the first time and referred to the Committee on Education Policy.

I can’t find much more at this point, but I’ll keep looking.

Broadband makes short list of items White House wants to fund for National Security

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The White House is asking the US House to look at ways to find common ground and support a number of projects under the umbrella of National Security Funding…

Over the coming weeks, the Administration looks forward to continued engagement with members of both parties to reach a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement to fund the Government and invest in critical national priorities. As part of that process, the Congress has an opportunity and obligation to advance our national security by addressing critical needs that should earn bipartisan support. Today, I am writing to provide you with the President’s request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 emergency supplemental funding for these key national security priorities.

Broadband is part of the plan…

Finally, our Nation faces additional urgent needs for millions of hard-working Americans. The Office of Management and Budget is refining our estimates of funding required to address recent natural disasters, avoid the risk that millions of Americans lose access to affordable high-speed internet or child care, provide additional resources for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and avert a funding cliff for wildland firefighter pay. I anticipate submitting a request for supplemental funds in these areas in coming days, and I continue to urge the Congress to address critical funding needs I communicated in September, including for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

State of Minnesota is up for various State IT Recognition Awards

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StateScoop reports…

he National Association of State Chief Information Officers on Tuesday announced the finalists of its annual State IT Recognition Awards program.

The association named 31 finalists across 10 categories, ranging from cybersecurity and business-process innovation to digital services and innovation. The awards also include a category called “State CIO Office Special Recognition,” which this year highlighted an AI vehicle services system in Minnesota, an open data platform in North Carolina and a professional development program in Tennessee.

According to a NASCIO press release, more than 80 NASCIO members selected the finalists from a pool of more than 100 entries. NASCIO plans to name one winner from each category at its annual conference in Minneapolis next month.

Here are the Minnesota finalists:

Cybersecurity 

  • State of Minnesota: Expanded Cybersecurity Protections to Counties, Cities, and Tribal Nations

Data Management, Analytics & Visualization 

  • State of Minnesota: Empowering Communities through Transparency and Crime Data

Digital Services: Government to Business 

  • State of Minnesota: Farmlink: Facilitating Connections to Keep Minnesota Farms Thriving

Digital Services: Government to Citizen 

  • State of Minnesota: Delivering Swift Relief to Minnesota’s COVID-19 Frontline Workers

Emerging & Innovative Technologies  

  • State of Minnesota: Digital Bridges: The Future is Here

Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations  

  • State of Minnesota: The App that Connects Job Seekers with Services They Need

State CIO Office Special Recognition 

  • State of Minnesota: How AI Enhances Driver and Vehicle Services for Minnesota Residents