Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence seeks more funding and warns rural counties are most vulnerable ahead of elections
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Summary
The Center reported growing activity and external funding but said current biennial allocations fall short of needs; the director requested permission to repurpose $250,000 in local‑grant funds for pilot election security assessments and urged additional funding to expand workforce and assessment work, particularly in rural counties.
The director of the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence told the Joint Legislative Committee on Information Management and Technology that the center has stood up significant programs but needs additional funding to meet its mandate and address urgent election security gaps.
Max Spaden (identified in the record as director of the center) said the center — a three‑university collaboration created by House Bill 2049 in 2023 — has established training, a teaching security operations center, certificate programs for community college students, and partnerships with private companies and federal programs. He reported that the center has leveraged more than $4,000,000 in external funding, trained more than 100 students in certificate programs and run a Northwest Cyber Camp for high‑school students.
Spaden said the center’s projected expenditures for the current biennium total roughly $6,000,000, which exceeds the legislature’s original appropriation, and that some programs funded by congressional earmarks have ended. He requested legislative permission to repurpose $250,000 set aside for special‑district assessments to run pilot election‑security assessments in a small number of counties, noting that many rural counties lack cybersecurity maturity, older equipment and staff capacity.
He described outreach to the secretary of state’s election security officer, the association of county clerks, the FBI and CISA, and said federal partners have been helpful but that some federal support has been reduced. Committee members expressed concern and recommended seeking additional funding for training and county assessments, and several members said the committee should consider a statement or resolution supporting increased resources for election security.
Next steps: committee staff and the center will explore options to repurpose existing funds for pilots and the center plans to request additional biennial funding in the next budget cycle.
