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Senate committee hears sponsor testimony on bill requiring local governments to adopt cybersecurity plans, restricts ransom payments

3717469 · June 3, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Sponsor testimony on Senate Bill 203 asked the committee to require Ohio political subdivisions to adopt cybersecurity programs, set incident‑reporting deadlines, and bar ransom payments without a formal legislative vote; an amendment protecting procurement records from public disclosure at the request of the auditor was adopted.

Senator Schaeffer urged the Ohio Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee to approve Senate Bill 203, which would require county, township, municipal and other political subdivisions to adopt a formal cybersecurity program and limit local officials’ ability to pay ransomware demands without a formal vote of their legislative body.

The bill’s sponsor said the measure was developed with State Auditor Keith Faber and is intended to “prevent and mitigate cybersecurity incidents and protect taxpayer dollars by giving local political subdivisions the tools that they need to properly address these situations.” The sponsor cited…

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