After John Podesta’s email account was hacked into and sensitive and embarrassing emails were made public, awareness increased as to the importance of strong passwords to protect personal information. On Thursday. the Arizona Legislature rejected a bill that would have required government agencies, including schools from requiring secure passwords.
The bill, HB2451, proposed by Rep. Bob Thorpe, passed out of the Government Committee on a 7-1 vote. However, politics took over and the measure failed in a vote of 20-38.
The Auditor General has frequently found that the state’s school districts have failed to change passwords putting students’ sensitive information at risk.
Rep. Thorpe, who has over 20 years of professional Information Technology experience and who served as Vice Chairman of the Technology and Infrastructure committee and on DOA’s ITAC committee stated, “The Arizona Auditor General told me that having strong passwords is not only a serious problem within our schools, but it is a problem throughout all state agencies. My bill is very simple, it instructs ADOA & ADOE to ensure that policies are in place to protect the sensitive information of our school children and of our citizens.”
HB 2451 provisions:
1. Requires the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) to ensure that all state and school computers use industry-standard systems to verify that:
a. Passwords are strong and regularly updated; and b. Identifying information and personal identifying information are secured against compromise and encrypted if possible. (Sec. 1)
2. Makes technical and conforming changes. (Sec. 1) Current Law State agencies are required to develop and establish procedures that prevent entity identifying information or personal identifying information from being accessed, viewed or acquired unless authorized by law (A.R.S. § 18-522).
The bill would have had no economic impact.
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| BENALLY | N | BLANC | N | BOLDING | N | BOWERS | N | |||
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| CARTER | N | CHÁVEZ | N | CLARK | N | CLODFELTER | Y | |||
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| FERNANDEZ | N | FINCHEM | Y | FRIESE | N | GABALDÓN | N | |||
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| POWERS HANNLEY | N | RIOS | N | RIVERO | Y | RUBALCAVA | N | |||
| SALDATE | N | SALMAN | N | SHOOTER | Y | SHOPE | N | |||
| STRINGER | Y | SYMS | N | THORPE | Y | TOWNSEND | N | |||
| UDALL | N | UGENTI-RITA | N | WENINGER | Y | MESNARD | N |