State cybersecurity officials outline threats, defenses and public training plans

Jason Cavendish, the Department of Technology Management and Budget deputy director and State of Michigan chief security officer, told the House Communications and Technology Committee on March 10 that the state is improving defenses against both nation‑state espionage and financially motivated cybercrime.

"Our mission is to enable the business to function securely while making security easier for customers and harder for hackers," Cavendish said, describing a strategy built around a 0‑trust architecture, stronger backups and expanded monitoring.

Cavendish summarized recent threat research and state actions. He cited the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report to highlight human‑targeted attacks such as credential harvesting and pretexting, and said stolen credentials have been a factor in roughly one‑third of data breaches since 2013. He said the state deployed a web…