The Department of Cannabis Control spent $6.7 million on its five largest buys of IT goods and $1.3 million for its five largest purchases of IT services in the first half of 2024.
Five of the 10 largest expenditures were made by two entities: the Office of Systems Integration, part of the California Health and Human Services Agency; and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The Department of Cannabis Control is looking to build a new system to help its law enforcement arm track investigations into illegal commercial activity.
Those purchases included technical tools, such as a mass spectrometer, and more conventional items, such as laptop computers.
Positions in recruitment include cybersecurity compliance officer, network and security architect, section chief and senior project manager.
In a new request for information, the California Department of Cannabis Control wants to learn more about “track and trace software and implementation services.”
As part of Industry Insider — California’s ongoing efforts to educate readers on state agencies, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Entities with key vacancies include those dealing with transportation, cannabis regulation, health insurance and state hospitals.
The state Department of Cannabis Control is seeking a section chief, and Long Beach is recruiting for a chief innovation officer.
The department calling on IT companies is one of the state’s newer entities.
The department, which regulates cannabis licensing, enforcement and equity, celebrates its impact in this news release.
The state entity, created last summer by the California Legislature, has chosen a new chief information officer less than a month before the one-year anniversary of its founding.
Blaine Wasylkiw, the chief web officer for the state, describes the open source California Design System, which is helping build websites and products “that put people first and also look great.”
The California Department of Social Services and the Department of Cannabis Control have begun recruitments for deputy directors who will also serve as chief information officers.
The department oversees the licensing, inspection and regulation of cannabis in the state. It was created through a merger of the Bureau of Cannabis Control, the CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing Division and the Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch.
State entities seeking candidates include those related to technology, cannabis control, emergency operations and fire prevention.
The California Department of Cannabis Control is seeking expertise in data security and privacy, and the California Conservation Corps is recruiting for an application architect.
From Jan. 1 through Dec. 1, the California Department of Cannabis Control’s single largest expenditure for IT services was $30 million with Metrc LLC for the state’s track-and-trace system, which documents the movement of the commodity from seed to sale.
The Department of Cannabis Control wants better visibility into county-level property data across the state “in order to verify property details on parcels where cannabis cultivation activities are occurring.”
The deputy director will serve as the primary policy adviser on IT-related strategic planning, as well as development and implementation of the department’s technology platforms, applications, systems, operations, support services, enterprise architecture and infrastructure.
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With calendar 2024 coming to a close, it’s a natural time to reflect on the cybersecurity mandates, policies, and strategies that have shaped the last few years in government. One of the most impactful strategies has been Zero Trust.
As cybersecurity threats become increasingly sophisticated, government agencies at all levels are facing a difficult task of securing their networks. Just look at these facts about ransomware attacks on state and local government:
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