Committee hears cybersecurity bill to set statewide standards and create grant fund; consumer-data amendment deferred

Senate Bill 472, authored by Senator Brown, drew extended testimony and discussion as sponsors sought to require local units of government and schools to adopt cybersecurity guidelines created by the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT), create a grant fund and an optional statewide insurance pool, and provide technical assistance. The committee discussed two posted amendments: amendment number 7 (a refinement to a liability/grant fund) was adopted by consent; amendment number 6 (a consumer-data-related change) was discussed and not added to the bill at this time.

Sponsor Senator Brown said the bill updates an earlier AI/cybersecurity task force effort and responds to school and local-government concerns about cyber insurance costs and best practices: "The idea as I said literally the entire bill started with schools having concerns about their insurance fund and how they're gonna pay for it and then we expanded into best practices," Brown said. She told the committee the bill pushes the timeline to 2027 so local units have time to implement guidelines and that the grant fund is structured as a program but currently has no money.

Amendment 7: Liability/grant fund Senator Brown described amendment number 7 as tightening the language that creates a fund to help schools with liability insurance and…