A top official working in California's primary fusion center will discuss evolving cyberthreats to the state and the emerging trends and strategies for combating them.
Eli Owen, deputy commander of the California State Threat Assessment Center (STAC), works for the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). He will give remarks Thursday during the California Technology Forum in Sacramento.
Owen's professional background is in law enforcement and homeland security functions. Owen graduated in spring 2016 from the USC Price School in Sacramento with a master's degree in public administration.
The California State Threat Assessment Center was created in response to 9/11 and is operated by Cal OES, the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ). The center serves as the state-level partner for a statewide intelligence sharing system made up of five locally owned and operated fusion centers in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.
"The STAC provides strategic intelligence analysis to statewide leadership, policymakers and private-sector partners. The analysis is focused on the terrorist and extremist threats to the public, critical infrastructure, and key resources, and criminal threats to the public welfare from drug trafficking organizations, human smugglers and traffickers, and street gangs," according to the fusion center's website.
Owen's discussion comes as cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly hot topic in state government circles. Last year Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order prescribing the creation of a California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC) within Cal OES. As part of its duties, CSIC will establish a multi-agency Cyber Incident Response Team to serve as the state’s primary unit to lead cyberthreat detection, reporting and response in coordination with public and private entities across the state.
A handful of "cyber" bills also are in circulation at the State Capitol and could be headed to the governor's desk this month. One bill would require agencies and departments to annually report their cybersecurity expenditures, while another would require California to complete a cyber-readiness plan.
The upcoming fall 2016 issue of Techwire magazine will take an in-depth look at cybersecurity across California state government, emerging trends and activities in the public and private sectors.
Editor's Note: The California Technology Forum is hosted by Techwire parent company e.Republic and sister publication Government Technology.
