A new cyber security center opened in Brooklyn will provide leaders across the state with a regional view of cyber-threats and improve coordination on threat intelligence and incident response, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.
The Joint Security Operations Center, which has been months in the making, will serve as a first-of-its-kind hub for data sharing and cyber coordination across New York State, New York City, the five major upstate cities, local and regional governments, critical infrastructure and federal partners, Hochul said.
The state, Hochul said, was an attractive target for cyberattacks due to its leadership in finance, energy, transportation, healthcare, and other critical fields. It was no longer enough for governments to defend themselves against attacks, given the “frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks,” and a whole-of-government approach was the best defense the state had, Hochul said.
She added that no other state had brought together cybersecurity teams in a shared command space at this scale — with teams at JSOC including federal, state, city and county governments; critical businesses and utilities; and state entities like Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Office of Information Technology Services, New York State Police, MTA, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York Power Authority, among others.
"There is a new type of emerging risk that threatens our daily lives, and just as we improved our physical security infrastructure in the aftermath of 9/11, we must now transform how we approach cybersecurity with that same rigor and seriousness," Hochul said.
"Cybersecurity has been a priority for my administration since Day 1, and this command center will strengthen our ability to protect New York's institutions, infrastructure, our citizens and public safety."
JSOC was born from a partnership between New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and cyber leaders across the state, she said.
Mayor Eric Adams said New York City was a prime target for “those who want to attack our cyber infrastructure to cause destruction.”
“We know that when it comes to cyberattacks, the difference between a minor disruption and a catastrophe can be a matter of minutes. That is why the new Joint Security Operations Center will take an integrated and holistic approach to hardening our cyber defenses across the state.”
Although headquartered in Brooklyn, the center will be staffed by both physical and virtual participants from across the state and it will “improve defenses by allowing cyber teams to have a centralized viewpoint of threat data,” yielding better collaboration on threat intelligence, reduction in response time, and quicker remediation in the event of a major cyber incident, the governor said.
Hochul said JSOC builds on her $61.9 million budget investment for cybersecurity. She isa also proposing a $30 million "shared services" program to help local governments and other regional partners acquire and deploy high quality cybersecurity services to bolster their cyber defenses.