In February, the University of Mississippi Medical Center was hit by a major ransomware attack as hackers attempted to hold the institution’s data for ransom. Since then, several counties and institutions of higher learning have reported additional breaches. On Saturday, a cyberattack on a local web provider knocked dozens of county websites offline, prompting around-the-clock recovery efforts.
During a hearing held by the Select Committee on Cybersecurity on Tuesday, representatives from several state offices and cybersecurity experts shared insight on how Mississippi could strengthen its electronic systems.
Bobby Freeman is Director of the Cyber Unit at the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security. He said more hackers are targeting government agencies for their data. “Yes, you have ransomware groups that go out and encrypt data and ask for a ransom. But that’s just part of their business model these days,” said Freeman. “They ultimately want that private data that individual companies or state agencies hold to then go forward and sell individual identities on the dark web.”
Freeman added that whenever an agency faces a breach, it’s critical that authorities are notified before data becomes unrecoverable. As an example, he said an agency in South Mississippi was being hacked. “On our way to the coast, in that three-hour time frame, it went from just suspicious network activity to full ransomware on their systems,” said Freeman.
One of the most pressing concerns shared by the panel of cybersecurity experts is the rapid development of malicious artificial intelligence. Thousands of advanced AI “agents” can be deployed with the goal of hacking into a database at one time.
John Tidwell, a security expert with Google, said the security measures that used to take humans hours to breach can now be cracked in seconds by AI.
Senator Scott DeLano of Gulfport said one option the state could consider is using AI agents to monitor and fight attacks.
“AI is definitely part of the tool that we’ll have to implement. We’re lagging a little behind in that,” said DeLano. “But we can be a leader if we have a progressive outlook from the Governor’s office down, to make sure that our state agencies adopt the policies that are necessary to prevent cyberattacks in the future.”
Lawmakers have considered legislation that would create a state agency dedicated to cybersecurity.
