Think for a moment of what a cyber-attack would mean for business, for government, for health care systems. Without the internet, it'd be incredibly difficult to function.
That's why Governor Snyder recently signed a law creating the Michigan Cyber Civilian Corps (MiC3). Think of it as a volunteer fire brigade that's ready to be called up in the event of a cyber-attack or other internet threat.
Ray Davidson, program manager of MiC3, joined Stateside today to explain how the program works.
Listen to the full conversation above, or read highlights below.
On the mission of the Michigan Cyber Civilian Corps
“Right now, it is to respond in the event of a governor-declared cyber emergency. We’d like, though, to be able to expand that – to be able to respond to incidents that are of a lower level than that."
On what constitutes a Governor-declared cyber emergency
"According to the Michigan Cyber Response Plan, [it] is something that threatens life and limb.”
"Let’s say a nation state hacked into the power grid and took out power stations in the U.P. during the winter. That would be pretty awful. We hope that that never happens."
On Michigan Cyber Civilian Corps' other goals
"We have at least 70 volunteers now. We don’t want them sitting on their hands doing nothing. We want to have some benefit from this. So we’re looking to be able to respond to things that are sort of at a lower level of severity, as well as perhaps be able to be able to do some proactive activities. It’s no good to just be reactive, right, if we’re all lucky, none of this will ever happen.”
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