Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure — House Technology, Economic Development, and Veterans Committee (WaTech, January 30, 2026)
Summary
Slides titled Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure for the House Technology, Economic Development, and Veterans Committee, dated January 30, 2026, naming Tristan Allen and Ralph Johnson. The slides list recent cyber-attacks in WA, including Evergreen State College (2025), Pierce County Library System (2025) and SeaTac Airport (2024). They describe the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) with $18.3M requested and $9.2M available for FY23, and $11.6M requested and $6.6M available for FY24. They also describe a Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (2SSB 5518-2023/RCW 38.52.040) and a proposed model, a Statewide Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Center, that would build upon existing capabilities at WSFC, WaTech and the Military Department.
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- Issuer
- Congressional materials
- Date
- 2026-01-30
Cite this document
“Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure — House Technology, Economic Development, and Veterans Committee (WaTech, January 30, 2026).”
Original at app.leg.wa.gov, dated 2026-01-30. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2026-01-30-2026-01-30-a33765-d293545-mil-watech-cybersecurity-and-critical-infrastructure/
, SHA-256 138dfe68e0ecf7025fcda82069f490588c7838202d1981321e8fa3df996ec5a1.Full text
Cybersecurity
and Critical
Infrastructure
House Technology, Economic
Development, and Veterans Committee
January 30, 2026
Tristan Allen
Ralph Johnson Infrastructure and Industry
State Chief Information Section Manager, WA
Security Officer Emergency Management
WaTech Division (EMD)
2
Securing Washington: A Whole of State Approach
Military
Department
Other
WaTech
Agencies
WA State Fusion
Center
3
Cybersecurity threats are increasing exponentially
Recent Cyber-Attacks in WA
• Evergreen State College (2025)
• CodeRED Emergency Notification
System – Numerous WA Counties
(2025)
• Pierce County Library System (2025)
• WA State Court System (2024)
• SeaTac Airport (2024)
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (2023)
• Pierce Transit (2023)
4
Source: IBM X-Force 2025 Report
Washington State Enterprise – threat landscape
Threats Response
Credential theft and phishing remain Multi-factor
primary entry vectors. Prevent Authentication (MFA),
access controls.
Ransomware and extortion target
service continuity and recovery. Mo n ito ring , a nti -
m a l w a re , tr i a g e ,
Detect/Respond
Vendor and SaaS compromise and c o o r di n ate d incident
cloud misconfiguration increase risk. response.
Resilient backups and
tested restoration
Recover
with mission-critical
systems first. 5
What state agencies protect:
Systems prioritized by business criticality
• MIL is responsible for improving the
resilience of “Critical Infrastructure”
sectors MIL - Critical WaTech - State
Infrastructure Enterprise Systems
• WaTech OCS Core focus: Mission Publicly Privately
Mission Critical
Owned Owned
Critical and Business Essential systems
Systems All 16
of the state enterprise network analysis sectors Business Essential
• WaTech OCS secures the state enterprise
network by prioritizing systems, services,
and IT infrastructure
Both lenses inform prioritization.
• Why it matters: continuity of government
OCS operationalizes on systems & services.
and public service delivery
6
Defining Critical Infrastructure
Chemical
Nuclear
Commercial
Reactors &
Facilities
Waste
Sector
Healthcare & Critical
Public Health Manufacturing
Sub-sector
Segment
Sub-segment
Government
Dams
Facilities
Asset
Food & Defense
Agriculture Industrial Base
Financial Emergency
Services Services
7
Improving Cybersecurity Across Critical Infrastructure
Communities
Local
Gov Threat
Emergency
Intelligence
Planning
Sharing
Private State
Sector Critical Gov
Infrastructure
Community
Incident Vulnerability
Response Assessments
Federal Tribal Coordination and Analysis
Gov Gov
8
Governance: Cybersecurity Advisory Committee
(2SSB 5518-2023/RCW 38.52.040)
Emergency Management
Local Gov.
Seismic Safety Deliverables:
Committee Federal
K-12
Gov.
EMC Annual Report
State Emergency
Committee •Submitted annually to the Governor’s Office
Council
Response Commission
Membership Annual State Cybersecurity Report
Cybersecurity Advisory
State Fusion •Co-authored with WaTech
Committee
Agencies Center •Submitted annually to the Governor’s Office
and Legislature
Infrastructure
Owner/
Operators
9
Enterprise cybersecurity
State
Enterprise
governance: standards, policy, and
Systems: baseline expectations
guardrails
and Shared accountability: agencies
capabilities operate systems; OCS enables
consistency of security controls
Coordinated support during
incidents and systemic risk
management
State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP)
Project Applications Projects Funded ($ funded)
189
171
149
105
82
64
FY 22 ($15M REQUESTED, $4M AVAILABLE) FY23 ($18.3M REQUESTED, $9.2M AVAILABLE) FY24 ($11.6M REQUESTED, $6.6M AVAILABLE)
11
The Need for real-time threat monitoring and
alignment across operations centers
• Federal, state and local law enforcement intelligence fusion.
Washington State Fusion Center
• Seattle, WA
• IT security for state network
WaTech Security Operations Center
• Olympia, WA
• DOD intelligence streams
WA National Guard Operations Center
• Camp Murray, WA
• Operations center for state disaster response
State Emergency Operations Center
• Camp Murray, WA
12
Proposed Model: Statewide Critical Infrastructure
Intelligence Center
• Build upon existing capabilities at
WSFC, WaTech and the Military
Department
• Develop share endpoint security and
network monitoring framework
• State agency clearance management
for classified threat briefings
• Operationalize threat intelligence for
protection activities and response
actions
13
Thank you Questions?
File and source
- File
- 2026-01-30_a33765_d293545_mil-watech-cybersecurity-and-critical-infrastructure.pdf
- Size
- 911,421 bytes
- SHA-256
- 138dfe68e0ecf7025fcda82069f490588c7838202d1981321e8fa3df996ec5a1
- Original
- app.leg.wa.gov