California Gov. Gavin Newsom has released Cal-Secure, the state’s first multi-year cybersecurity roadmap. In a press release, Gov. Newsom’s office said Cal-Secure is built on industry-leading best practices and frameworks, and addresses critical gaps in the state’s information and cybersecurity programs while enabling the state to manage existing and future threats more effectively.
The roadmap, the governor said, will help state agencies define a path forward to strengthen the state’s cybersecurity measures and prioritize resources to manage the most significant cyber risks and safeguard state services for Californians.
“Hackers steal our time, money, and peace of mind. Protecting our data is among the most important things we can do to prevent disruption to our daily lives and our economy,” said Gov. Newsom. “We have to do more to safeguard the state’s critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and our status as one of the world’s leading economies.”
The roadmap is broken into three categories – people, process, and technology. According to Gov. Newsom’s office, each category includes strategic priorities to address critical shortfalls or concerns. The priorities include developing and unifying California’s diverse, innovative cybersecurity workforce to safeguard the data and systems used to deliver public services; providing effective oversight supported by a flexible governance model; and investing in technology and services to enhance cybersecurity capabilities at all state entities.
Gov. Newsom’s office said Cal-Secure outlines actionable steps to ensure California’s Executive Branch has a “world-class cybersecurity workforce, an empowered and right-sized federated cybersecurity oversight governance structure, and effective cybersecurity defenses to all technology.”
Cal-Secure was created through a collaborative process with the California Cybersecurity Integration Center, California Department of Technology, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, California Military Department, and the state government security community.
