Large businesses and state governments have the resources to protect their information systems. State governments need to take a leadership role in mobilizing small businesses and citizens against the dangers of systems hackers, saboteurs, con artists and the like. One of my nightmares is of a coordinated, statewide attack on particular information system databases, such as those handling tax collection or human resources data. This may seem outlandish or unlikely to have widespread impact, but consider the IT needed these days to run utilities, governments, businesses and households. Via IT, public enemies can attack several institutions at once.
Hackers scrawl political statements on Web sites like so much graffiti.
Unauthorized access to individuals' and businesses' databases slows progress as we battle for privacy. These situations are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Only state leadership can determine IT security risks within a state's infrastructure. Lessons learned from work on the year 2000 date rollover will serve us well here. The task forces can identify IT resources across the state and work to apply those where the security risk is greatest.