Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a new cybersecurity command center Tuesday that she said will help defend against hacks of government agencies and prepare municipalities, communication systems and transportation networks for attacks.
The new Joint Security Operations Center, headquartered in Brooklyn, will come online as New York government entities face a constant barrage of attacks — and as the introduction of strong international sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine presage possible cyber attacks from Russian sources.
“Sometimes for every action there's a reaction,” Hochul said at a news conference at the JSOC office. “Shame on us if we’re not watching and anticipating what's happening across the globe.”
The center will be funded with state money, part of a proposed $62 million cybersecurity package that Hochul included in her preliminary budget. The proposal also includes $30 million to help smaller cities and towns improve their cyber defenses.
Hochul said the JSOC office would represent a “first in the nation” effort to centralize real-time information about cyber incursions, and allow municipalities to immediately fix exploitable holes in government software that are being penetrated by hackers in other parts of the state.
Mayor Eric Adams also signed an executive order requiring every city agency to appoint a liaison for cybersecurity to the main software office in City Hall. Adams said that, in speaking with former Mayor Bill de Blasio last year, de Blasio stressed that the gravest threat the city faced was potential fallout from a major hack.
“We run our city on technology,” Adams said. “When you hack that technology, you are hacking our entire city.”
Last year, the city’s law department was hacked. Adams said the new agency liaisons would help ensure that city offices implemented best cybersecurity practices.
Hochul said there was no immediate increase in the threat of hacks from Russia or Russian-allied entities, but that the new command center would help prepare the state’s various government software systems for any possible attacks.
“Given the increasingly volatile geopolitical circumstances, with Russia and Ukraine,” Hochul said, “we can no longer act independently.”