Heather Abbott, who was named West Virginia’s CIO and head of its Office of Technology (OT) last summer, knows a thing or two about staying power.

House and Senate committee leaders unveiled a discussion draft of their latest effort to create a national data privacy law via the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024, which notably features provisions that would allow people to opt out of the use of their data for creating algorithms that could impact a host of major life decisions.

Cyberattacks against state and local governments can interrupt critical infrastructure, leak sensitive information, and cause significant financial damage. Agencies are using more security tools to thwart increasingly sophisticated attacks, but this has led to a level of complexity that overburdens security teams. MeriTalk recently sat down with Kenny Holmes, cybersecurity senior leader for government and education at Cisco, to discuss how integrated, automated solutions can help analysts quickly detect, prioritize, and remediate threats.

Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, is teaming up with education technology company D2L to offer a free cybersecurity course for K-12 school system and technology leaders. The goal of the course is to help school leaders better understand cyber threats and identify key mitigation and prevention steps.

Norwalk (Conn.) Public Schools (NPS) announced that five additional schools will receive free Chromebook devices thanks to NPS expanding its participation in Verizon Innovative Learning.

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) has launched a public beta version of the “DC Compass,” which uses generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to answer data-oriented civic questions and create maps from thousands of open data sets.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is using high-resolution data to find and protect important habitat features like wildlife road crossings.

Joining a chorus of other states and localities looking to address the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has issued an executive order (EO) designed to govern the use and development of AI within city operations.

Security analysts in the education sector must contend with evolving cybersecurity threats despite limited resources. MeriTalk recently sat down with Helen Patton, cybersecurity executive advisor for education at Cisco, to discuss how an open, collaborative approach to threat detection and response can help streamline processes for overburdened security teams.

The city of San Jose, Calif., has established the GovAI Coalition to help shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in government. The city said it welcomes state, local, and other municipal government agencies to join the coalition.