On Monday, Governor Doug Ducey launched Arizona’s new Cyber Command Center at a ceremony at the Department of Public Safety’s Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) in Phoenix.
The Cyber Command Center will be Arizona’s headquarters for coordinating statewide cybersecurity operations. The center will be a central location for cybersecurity professionals and local, state and federal agencies to prevent and respond to cyberattacks. It will provide an ideal location to enhance public-private partnerships to protect Arizonans against cyberthreats.
Tim Roemer, Director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security and Chief Information Security Officer championed the effort to launch the command center. Ducey appointed Roemer as Director of the Department of Homeland Security in April after he served as Arizona’s Chief Information Security Officer since 2019.
Roemer believes that cybersecurity is homeland security as a result, he recommended combining the state’s cybersecurity mission with the Department of Homeland Security to better protect Arizona from increasing cybersecurity risks.
In September alone, the Arizona Department of Homeland Security detected and alerted on approximately 68 million threats and protected state websites from over 800,000 attacks. The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center is a joint effort by the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies to support Arizona’s homeland security efforts.
In March 2018, Ducey issued an executive order creating the Arizona Cybersecurity Team. The group was made up of experts from state, local, and federal government, the private sector, and higher education, working together to protect Arizonans from cyberattacks. Among their objectives were enhancing cybersecurity workforce development and education and increasing public awareness of cybersecurity best practices.