{"id":192293,"date":"2026-03-03T06:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/you-cant-separate-the-physical-from-the-cyber-says-new-yorks-first-security-and-intelligence-director\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T06:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:25:08","slug":"you-cant-separate-the-physical-from-the-cyber-says-new-yorks-first-security-and-intelligence-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/you-cant-separate-the-physical-from-the-cyber-says-new-yorks-first-security-and-intelligence-director\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You can’t separate the physical from the cyber,’ says New York’s first security and intelligence director"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘You can’t separate the physical from the cyber,’ says New York’s first security and intelligence director<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/statescoop.com\/new-york-colin-ahern-security-intelligence-director\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-03 06:03:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: statescoop.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

In recognition of the many creative \u2014 and sometimes offline \u2014 modes of influence employed by the nation\u2019s adversaries, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week promoted Colin Ahern, formerly the state\u2019s chief cyber officer, to serve as its first director of security and intelligence.<\/p>\n

Ahern\u2019s new role, according to the governor\u2019s press materials, will \u201cprovide strategic direction and further unify the State\u2019s security assets.\u201d Hochul noted that \u201cthe threats we face are more complex and interconnected than ever before\u201d and enjoined the state to be \u201caggressive, innovative and adaptive\u201d as New York\u2019s new intelligence director operates across all levels of government, the region\u2019s critical infrastructure providers, academia and the private sector, addressing attacks online, but also taking on malign foreign influence campaigns, \u201chybrid warfare and other national security issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emerging doctrine of our adversaries\u201d \u2014 China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, \u2014 is an \u201call of the above, all the time approach to either holding specific targets at risk, i.e. obtaining access to them via cyber means, or the ability to conduct attacks on the space, for example via drones,\u201d Ahern said in an interview. He explained that recent instances around the globe of hybrid warfare \u2014 a combination of tactics that can be as technical as a ransomware attack or as analog as political skullduggery \u2014 have illustrated the \u201cblurring of the lines between cyber and physical attacks, and physical impact of cyberattacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin Ahern (LinkedIn)<\/p>\n

He pointed to Poland, where Russia has not only employed cyberattacks in an attempt to disable its power grid, but is funding so-called single-use agents to stimulate social unease and erode support for the war in Ukraine. Ahern said his role is intended primarily to advance the state\u2019s economic development and workforce goals, and to \u201cmanage the risk that the changing geopolitical landscape poses to New Yorkers\u201d; he boiled the job into two primary functions, but his remit is expansive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll support large regional events that are expected to attract millions of fans, like 2026 FIFA World Cup matches in New Jersey. Hochul last month announced the state will receive $17.2 million in federal funding to mitigate unauthorized drones, a nuisance increasingly present thanks both to hobbyists clueless as to the dangers of flying in restricted airspace and criminals seeking to collect information or damage critical facilities. Ahern said he\u2019ll also help secure U.S. 250th anniversary events this summer, including a seven-day aquatic parade along the New York waterfront that will feature dozens of \u201ctall ships\u201d from around the world.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll support efforts to attract new security-adjacent businesses to the state, like Micron, which in January broke ground on a $100 billion semiconductor fabrication facility, planned to be the largest in the United States. Some who attended the ceremonial event described to the audience the project\u2019s scale: \u201cImagine the megafabs that will be built here, each of them [the] size of ten football fields,\u201d Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron\u2019s chief executive, explained from the dais. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who began his remarks by noting that central New York was \u201cthe heart of Trump country,\u201d said the project \u201conly got scheduled\u201d because the president \u201ccleared out all of the environmental and other things that tend to get in the way.\u201d In this case, those other things included hundreds of acres of trees, where two species of endangered bats roost for part of the year.<\/p>\n

Ahern will help secure the state\u2019s water and wastewater facilities, critical infrastructure for which the state recently wrapped up a second public commenting period on forthcoming cybersecurity requirements that include conducting annual cybersecurity vulnerability analyses, establishing formal cybersecurity programs, creating incident response plans, following new incident reporting requirements and training staff on cybersecurity hygiene. There are more than 150,000 public drinking water systems in the United States, and on rare occasions they sustain terrifying cyberattacks. A Russian hacking group in 2024 took credit for attacks against a wastewater treatment plant in Indiana and another water facility in Texas. A third attack against a water treatment facility in Kansas forced operators to switch to manual operations that were reportedly inefficient, and potentially hazardous if used over extended periods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahern said New York\u2019s upcoming cybersecurity regulations for water and wastewater facilities will be \u201cfirst of a kind\u201d and that though a technical assistance program, the utilities will become \u201cmore cyber mature.\u201d To protect the state\u2019s energy grid from cybersecurity threats, Ahern pointed to 2022 legislation, passed unanimously by both state houses, designed to harden utilities\u2019 cybersecurity postures by enlisting the state\u2019s public service agencies to regulate how electrical distribution utilities do cyber \u2014 \u201cI think we are still the only state that has this prescriptive, forward-looking legislative authority,\u201d Ahern said. \u201cYou can\u2019t in many cases separate the physical from the cyber, and I think this role is an acknowledgement of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWritten by Colin Wood
\n\t\t\tColin Wood is StateScoop’s editor in chief. Contact him at colin.wood@statescoop.com or cwood.64 on Signal.\t\t<\/p>\n

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