{"id":196431,"date":"2026-03-16T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/amid-rising-global-threats-north-carolinas-tech-bureau-urges-cybersecurity-vigilance\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:20:11","slug":"amid-rising-global-threats-north-carolinas-tech-bureau-urges-cybersecurity-vigilance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/amid-rising-global-threats-north-carolinas-tech-bureau-urges-cybersecurity-vigilance\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid ‘rising global threats,’ North Carolina’s tech bureau urges cybersecurity vigilance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid ‘rising global threats,’ North Carolina’s tech bureau urges cybersecurity vigilance<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/statescoop.com\/north-carolina-josh-stein-cybersecurity-global-threats\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-16 14:16:00<\/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 response to \u201crising global threats,\u201d North Carolina\u2019s technology department on Monday issued a press release urging the state\u2019s public sector, businesses and residents to \u201cwork together to strengthen cybersecurity defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release notes that the department received \u201crecent intelligence\u201d indicating a rise in cybersecurity operations from \u201cnation-state actors.\u201d When pressed over email for additional details, such as whether North Carolina is observing an increase in network activity from Iran or its allies, a department spokesperson declined to cite specifics, noting obliquely that \u201cthe cyber threat environment remains heightened and ever-changing, with organizations nationwide, including state governments, continuing to monitor for malicious actions from a range of domestic and international threat actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a briefing with reporters last week, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which shares threat intelligence with state and local cybersecurity officials from around the country, did not disclose having seen a spike in cyberattacks from the Middle East since the previous week, when it had warned of a possible impending wave of \u201clow-level cyber activity,\u201d such as website defacements and distributed denial-of-service attacks. Instead, its organizers described the typical results of similar conflicts from recent history.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, Bernice Russell-Bond, the state\u2019s chief information security officer, warned Monday that \u201ccyberthreats are no longer distant concerns; they are immediate realities.\u201d Gov. Josh Stein assured the public in the release that the state is \u201ctaking these threats seriously.\u201d Teena Piccione, North Carolina\u2019s chief information officer, said the state\u2019s security operations center is \u201con high alert\u201d and noted that \u201cvigilance is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Carolina\u2019s press materials note that ransomware attacks have in recent years disrupted a wide range of services offered by local governments, even sometimes shutting them down entirely. But out of Iran, said Randy Rose, MS-ISAC\u2019s vice president for security operations and intelligence, \u201cwe don\u2019t see a ton of ransomware\u201d \u2014 the nation tends instead to favor \u201cdestructive and disruptive attacks and wiper attacks,\u201d such as its recent cyberattack against Stryker Corporation, the medical equipment maker headquartered in Michigan, in which there was \u201cno indication of malware or ransomware.\u201d And ongoing war or not, Iran also tends to ramp up attacks against United States elections infrastructure as each November approaches.<\/p>\n

TJ Sayers, MS-ISAC\u2019s senior director of threat intelligence, said he would not expect the nation\u2019s air-gapped voting systems to be affected by such activity, but reiterated an expectation of disruptive, low-level cyber operations. He speculated that websites operated by secretary of state offices could wind up affected by broader attacks.<\/p>\n

Sayers also warned that attacks from Iran\u2019s allies \u2014 China, Russia \u2014 might be \u201cslipping through the cracks\u201d as the world fixes its sights on the Middle East. He noted recent reports that Russia is providing Iran intelligence to assist with physical warfare: \u201cIt\u2019s reasonable to assume that they would be doing something similar in cyberspace.\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

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid ‘rising global threats,’ North Carolina’s tech bureau urges cybersecurity vigilance https:\/\/statescoop.com\/north-carolina-josh-stein-cybersecurity-global-threats\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-16…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1245441157.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,32],"class_list":["post-196431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity","tag-malware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196433,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196431\/revisions\/196433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}