John Tidwell of Google and Mandiant told legislators that identity protection and governance are central to modern statewide defenses, warned that AI (including deepfakes) is accelerating attacks, and recommended thorough tabletop exercises that test crisis communications and ransomware decision-making.

Doug Robinson of NASEO summarized national survey results: states face rising AI-enabled threats, cybersecurity budgets remain small (about 2% or less of IT spend), workforce shortages persist, and states increasingly centralize services and pursue .gov adoption and whole-of-state strategies.

Bobby Freeman, director of the Mississippi Cyber Unit, told lawmakers that federal grant awards end in 2025 and available funds must be spent by 2029, creating a local funding cliff; he urged mandatory incident reporting to the MCU within 48 hours and more funding for digital forensics.

DFA officials told the budget committee they found 'web shells' in agency systems before the pandemic, hired outside contractors to remove them, and are asking for a FY28 budget of $101,621,113 including $35 million for building repairs and renovations.

The Technology Committee adopted a committee substitute and advanced Senate Bill 2654 to charge ITS with establishing a state Security Operations Center (SOC) to centralize cyberassets; the committee directed the substitute forward by voice vote and said ITS would likely lead the SOC.

Senate Bill 2046 amends security breach reporting requirements for businesses in Mississippi.