Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed legislation into law that would allow cyberattacks to qualify as a disaster declaration. House Bill 3 will expand the definition of an emergency to include cyberattacks, which are different than other disasters that a declaration can cover. For example, an attack on the power grid in the middle of winter in Alaska would be disastrous.
In signing House Bill 3 into law, Governor Dunleavy said:
“We’re in a different world now. The disasters that we’ve had to deal with traditionally have been floods or earthquakes, volcanoes, the list goes on and on because we are in Alaska, but cybersecurity is probably the big new threat across this country and across this world. We’ve got some nefarious actors that aren’t necessarily friends of ours. They’re going to constantly test us nonstop. This is going to be the new frontier for protections, and this is why I think this bill is timely. It’s just one tool. We’ll probably have discussions constantly on how to keep ahead of these people because this is where this warfare starts. We do have a lot of integrated systems that are reliant on being part of the world wide web and as a result, there’s entry points. The chances of us having a cyber-attack, I could tell you, is actually really good because we’ve had them already.”
Dunleavy says this tool allows for a quick and decisive response:
“This legislation updates the Alaska Disaster Act to include cyberattacks. It allows the governor to declare a disaster emergency, not frivolously, and I was talking with some folks that have been working on this bill for a couple of years. There are legitimate concerns, and I get that, to not to give a certain branch of government too much power, and that’s very important. I think this bill was vetted. I think those concerns were addressed. It’s not something that can be done willy nilly, but I think if there ever is a disaster declaration declared because of cyberattacks, everyone’s going to understand why.”
A cyberattack or serious cyber incident is defined in the legislation as one that affects critical infrastructure in the state, an information system owned or operated by the state or a political subdivision of the state, information that is stored on, processed by, or transmitted on an information system owned or operated by the state or a political subdivision of the state.
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