This month I had the distinct pleasure of presenting on Privacy, Equity, and the Cybersecurity Landscape with my fellow WaTech colleagues Tavares Terry, DEI Director and Zack Hudgins, Privacy Manager. We presented at the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Conference in Seattle on June 7.
We enjoyed sharing our learnings with the NICE community. Our presentation focused on the workforce shortfalls Washington is seeing in state government and offered examples of how we are addressing them by leveraging the privacy principles of fairness, accessibility and equity in helping current workers in new ways and new workers in flexible ways. Beginning with the overlap between privacy and cybersecurity illustrated in the NIST Framework – Washington is leveraging internal talent, building career pathways for current employees, addressing degree requirements, and designing training and support to upskill and professionalize new people to the field. With the growing attention to concerns around data collection and its use, which goes beyond data protection, privacy is an area of growth within the cybersecurity landscape.
Upcoming webinar: Facial Recognition: The good, the bad, the regulated:
Please join the Office of Privacy and Data Protection for our June webinar! The development of biometric technologies is changing the way we manage and protect our identities. This presentation will provide an overview of facial recognition technologies, the benefits they promise, the concerns they raise, and the practical and legal considerations for implementation. If you are unable to attend, the recording and slide deck will be available for viewing on our website.
Presented by Matthew King, Washington Technology Solutions
Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Time: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Place: Zoom
Privacy Threshold Analyses and Privacy Impact Assessments Update
It has been six months since we launched the PTA/PIA process and its integration with WaTech’s Office of Cybersecurity (OCS) Security Design Review process. We are very happy to report that by all measures it has been a success in helping agencies think more about the personal data they are collecting, using, and processing to perform services for the state. One great example of successful data minimization included an agency project that determined it did not need several personal data elements for the work that needed to be performed. Additionally, in teaming up with OCS we also helped an agency correctly classify sensitive health information to ensure correct protections for Category 3 data were implemented. Our numbers of PTAs are steady and we have received and processed more than 70 since December.
Keep up the great work to ensure privacy is considered when processing Washington state resident’s personal data!
See you next month with more updates!
Katy Ruckle
State Chief Privacy Officer