Governor Hogan Hosts National Cybersecurity Summit, Enacts Bold Initiatives to Protect Critical Infrastructure From Cyberattacks
Governor Larry Hogan convened a cybersecurity summit at the Maryland State House in Annapolis focused on coordinated federal, state, and private sector efforts to prepare for and address cybersecurity threats.
The summit brought together senior government officials, including leaders from the White House, Congress, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the FBI, as well as governors, academic leaders, and private sector experts.
At the close of the summit, Governor Hogan enacted a range of initiatives to strengthen Maryland’s cyber ecosystem and protect the state’s critical infrastructure, including a new partnership with the NSA, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to establish a new Maryland Institute for Innovative Computing, and a statewide privacy framework to govern the way the state secures citizens’ personal information.
Earlier this year, Governor Hogan wrote a USA Today op-ed urging Washington to “wake up” and take specific actions to address cyber threats.
The cybersecurity summit builds on the successful Annapolis Infrastructure Summit held in April that included governors, U.S. senators, and leaders of the U.S. House Problem Solvers Caucus and ultimately helped produce the bipartisan infrastructure bill currently being debated in Congress.
Although neither initial infrastructure proposal from President Biden or Senate Republicans even mentioned “cybersecurity” or “hacking,” Governor Hogan’s infrastructure proposal as chair of the National Governors Association recommended that protecting America’s infrastructure be one of the key four pillars for any federal infrastructure bill. The current bipartisan proposal will allocate grants to state and local governments to strengthen cybersecurity. According to Governor Hogan, “in the 21st century, America’s infrastructure is only as strong as it’s protected from cyber threats.”