WASHOE COUNTY NEWS RELEASE
Washoe County, Clark County and the state of Nevada competed with many other states for the opportunity to have the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security perform a cyber security assessment for Nevada.
Selected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Nevada was one of two states awarded for the highly competitive program and Clark County and Washoe County/Carson City were the communities chosen to participate. The goal of the assessment is to strengthen and improve the region’s ability to safeguard information resources.
Washoe County’s chief information management officer, Cory Casazza, says he is looking forward to the training since the internet touches everything the county has to offer stating, “All of us, from law enforcement, fire and rescue, health services to the financial, utility and service sectors will be severely impacted if access to, or reliability of, information flowing across our networks should suddenly be unavailable or degraded. Recognizing this, we’re going to strengthen and improve our ability to safeguard the information resources essential to our community.” Administered by CIAS, an extension of the University of Texas – San Antonio, the program consists of a 14-month training and exercise program focused on community cyber security prevention, response and recovery. The program crosses over both public and private sectors. The goal is collaborative and secure community infrastructures which have shown to be more stable. Both local private sectors and the general public will benefit from improved security measures and are invited to participate in the community program. The CIAS program will launch this week with introductory meetings on Feb. 28 at 8:30 a.m. at the Regional Emergency Operations Center at 5195 Spectrum Blvd., Reno; or at 11 a.m. in the Central Conference Room (room C110) in building C at the Washoe County Complex 1001 East Ninth St., Reno.
