Kansas lawmakers working to protect against breaches after major cyberattack

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - With hacks and data leaks becoming more common, many companies and organizations are looking to beef up their online security through two-factor authentication and other programs.

The Kansas state government is looking for ways to protect against breaches after a major cyberattack last year. The cyberattack happened before dawn on Oct. 12 and compromised servers housed in the Kansas Judicial Center. It also kept the Kansas eCourt case management system down for more than two months.

Tuesday, 12 News spoke with a state representative leading the charge to protect sensitive information.

“We have to protect citizens’ data, and if we’re not responsible and can’t protect social security numbers or anything else, that’s a severe and major problem,” said Rep. Blake Carpenter, Speaker Pro Tem (R, Wichita).

After the cyberattack that paralyzed Kansas courts, lawmakers are trying to toughen up the state’s online defenses.

“There are some areas of the government where we need to do a lot better. The state of Kansas is going to make it a priority in order to update our cybersecurity infrastructure and IT infrastructure,” Carpenter said.

If passed, a new state law will set cybersecurity standards for state agencies and create new cybersecurity officers for each branch of government. The proposed law would allow the state two years to plan its upgrades and budget before implementing them in 2027.

With cyberattacks becoming common, businesses and schools are also looking for more ways to keep personal information safe.

“You can’t just say, ‘I have an antivirus, I’m good,’” said Soteria Technology Solutions CEO Bill Ramsey. “There’s actually a bunch of layers of security you need to have in place, things like your firewall. And you should be running intrusion detection, you should be running all kinds of things to watch traffic.”

Ramsey said once your information is in a system, there’s not much you can do. But you can be proactive by using a password manager or two-factor authentication.

“Never use the same password in any system, let your password manager take care of that for you so if someone gains access to your email for instancem they can’t start gaining access to other systems,” he said.