OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Senate has passed a measure that creates a state Office of Cybersecurity.
The bill passed the chamber Wednesday and now heads to the House for consideration.
The bill was drafted in response to a security breach that exposed personal information from around 1.6 million unemployment claims filed last year.
Under the proposed law, the office would set security policies and develop centralized protocols for managing the state’s information technology assets.
The measure would direct all state entities to adopt programs that incorporate cybersecurity standards set by the office and to report any major cybersecurity incident within 24 hours.