Dismissed California Cybersecurity Commander calls for change

From Harry JohnsonCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

The California California Californity Commander says that the state is abusing its limited cybersecurity resources, leaving unskilled employees to set priorities.

In an exclusive interview with CalMatters, commander Edward Bombita said the agency should become independent.

Bómbita was terminated by the best publication on the state cybersecurity in the phone call from the governor’s office on September 23; His last day is Friday. He was at work less than a year, but he was repeatedly contrary, he said, with officers at the Emergency Service Office. This agency controls the one that bómbita ran Internal security departmentS

In Bómbita’s story, he wanted to focus on protecting critical water and electrical infrastructure and helping small cities and schools to protect themselves online; The Emergency Services Service wanted him to focus on threats that have not yet influenced state networks, such as North Korean scammers looking for remote jobs Or online threats against health care leaders after the assassination of UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO Brian Thompson.

Bómbita claims that the Center for Cybersecurity of 80 people should be independent in order to give a better priority to limited resources and to avoid intervention by the management of emergency services, which “do not understand enough cyber enough to lead these efforts.”

“In an ideal world, we would have a cybersecurity agency for the state, which was an independent agency that did not meet the governor or legislature, just respond to people,” he said. “It’s an incredible organization, it’s just in the wrong agency and it has to be his thing.”

The governor’s service did not respond to many requests for comment.

The spokesman for the Emergency Services Service Anita Gore did not answer when he was asked about Bómbita’s remarks, saying only that the defense of Californians from cyber threats remains a major priority for her agency.

Bómbita started working after state Left the publication freely for more than two yearsS

The cybersecurity commander is responsible for the protection of the infrastructure and the economy of California, reports threats to public and private partners and supporting law enforcement authorities. Bómbita’s departure comes when the Federal Government’s Security Agency and Infrastructure breaks down after being reported to have lost Approximately one third of his workforce since the beginning of the Trump administration. It is now caught in the continued exclusion of the government with Most of his employees got out and the rest Work without pay.

Bómbita, who previously served at the California National Guard and Cyber ​​Command of the US Navy, told him that he was fired, did not support the governor’s priorities. But he thinks he was actually fired to press solutions on how to manage the Cybersecurity Center.

Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin, Democrat of a Thousand Oaks, is the author legislation that helped to create Cybersecurity Center. She said it could be a good idea to look at the structure and placement of the center now when it is over a decade. She said she would like to work with the governor next year, “identify and hope to adopt recommendations for improving his results for Californians.”

Irwin, who chaired the Cybersecurity Assembly Committee, called Cyber ​​Attacks one of the biggest threats that California faced and called on the governor to fill the commander’s vacancy.

A former cybersecurity commander in California, speaking anonymously for fear of professional revenge, has agreed that the Cybersecurity Integration Center must become an independent agency. The person told Calmatters that the governor must make the position of the commander capable of performing independent audits of state agencies or completely eliminated the center.

“Unless, or unless the governor forces agencies to follow what Cal-Csic does and support them, this will be what has always been a great idea on paper,” they said.

Several employees of the Homeland Security Division of the Emergency Service, speaking, provided for anonymity of fear of repression, told Calmatters that they thought it was time to consider moving the center to another department or turn it into an independent agency that reports to the governor.

“What we have been doing for 10 years does not work and the ordinary denominator is OES, so maybe we should look elsewhere,” one of them said.

“What we have been doing for 10 years does not work and the ordinary denominator is OES.”

Employee, Department of Home Security, California Office of Emergency Services

The Emergency Service Coordinates state -owned disaster reactions, such as wild fires, earthquakes and floods. Another cybersecurity employee stated that it was “completely beyond their depth as to the cyber. You would not allow a plumber to carry out surgery on you. How does it make any sense for someone who has no basis in the reality of the cyber world to dictate politics?”

These people also said that morality among the employees of the Center for Cybersecurity has dropped after the termination of Bómbita and the meeting of all hands last month when the management of the emergency services refused to share a clear explanation why he was released. An employee of the Cybersecurity Center told Calmatters that many of their colleagues choose to work there for stability and because they believe in MissionBut after this meeting, a number of people are looking for a job elsewhere.

“Most of these jobs are paid repeatedly (more) in the private sector, so I think we all believe in the mission, so it’s very repulsive to happen,” one said.

Bómbita is the third party appointed by a governor to serve as a cybersecurity commander as the center was created a decade ago. Former civil clerks of cybersecurity told Calmatters They believe that it is difficult for the Cybersecurity Center to retain the commanders, since the pay is less than for similar jobs in the private sector and that civil servants can relate to the position of commander – who will be temporarily at work – different from a commander appointed by Gavin New.

California faces a number of continuing threats of cybersecurity ranging from malicious QR codes distributed to Operate the victims of Los Angeles for fire In order to ransom, attack this Turn off cities or compromise the personal information of millions of children all over the country.

In addition to ransom and phishing attacks, Bómbita According to the best cyber threats in California are nation-states trying to enter US networks, such as “Salt Typhoon attacks ” It is attributed to China and new vectors for a threat caused by artificial intelligence. Last week, the Cybersecurity Center was tasked with drawing up a Cybersecurity cooperation book after AI after Newsom signed a bill in the law Order to do them.

But perhaps the biggest threat to California today, Bombs said, are vulnerable to small public institutions such as cities and schools. Large cities like Los Angeles are relatively well equipped for meteorological attacks against their systems, but the smaller entities have no training and staff to protect themselves, and this poses a threat to government agencies tied to them.

“The fact that state, local, tribal and territorial organizations and critical infrastructure organizations are so underfunded, undervalued and insufficient is something that really applies to me,” he said. “This will lead to big, serious questions if a significant participant of participation attaches to these vulnerabilities and risks.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.