By Jason Bevis
Feb 11, 2021
Over the past year, state and local government authorities have rightfully devoted their energies and their budgets to fighting the coronavirus and providing services to those impacted. It’s been a difficult fight, full of challenges, and it’s not over yet.
It seems doubly cruel that in the midst of the pandemic, governments have been forced to deal with cyberattacks that have interfered with their ability to deliver essential services to their constituents. Following a virus attack in September 2020, for example, police officers in Key West, Fla., were forced to use pen and paper for their reports until servers could be rebuilt and IT systems restored.
A group of Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to revamp state unemployment insurance systems by creating a set of shareable technology capabilities that focus on user experience.
Attacks from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea will likely continue “until the leadership has decided that it cannot tolerate further behavior," former CISA Director Chris Krebs told the House Homeland Security Committee.
Cities, states, businesses and tech volunteers are creating vaccination scheduling websites and apps, but frustration abounds because of misunderstood or changing rules and the unpredictably short supply of vaccine.
Now, it appears that internet access is emerging as a new and troublesome determinant of health. This appears to be particularly true for underresourced racial and ethnic minority communities and aging populations.