(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:
Cyber threats have continued to grow in significance, scale, scope, and sophisticationin the past several years;
A dramatic increase in the number of cyber attacks against public, private, and nonprofit entities and individual citizens, coupled with inadequate resources to respond to such attacks, have made cybersecurity a top priority;
Colorado is well-suited to serve as a location for comprehensive cross-sector andinterstate strategy to support the response against these attacks and the education and training needed to prepare government and private sector leaders to respond to these attacks;
It is in the state's interest to support a partnership of academics and systems excellence at the university of Colorado at Colorado Springs and other institutions of higher education that can leverage the military, federal, state, and local government, and private sector assets in Colorado to support the cybersecurity of our state and local governments and to support the cybersecurity of federal partners and other states and local governments across the country; and
It is also in the state's interest to support such a partnership as a tool to ensure thatColorado's private sector is better prepared to respond to threats and in turn make Colorado a stronger hub for the cyber industry and the commercialization of cyber technology.
(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that the intent of this part 19 is to identify specific actions to define and improve cybersecurity, including the creation of a Colorado cybersecurity council, coordinating cyber operations centers, establishing or expanding cyber higher education programs to promote education, training, and workforce development for cybersecurity, establishing a secure environment for research and development, and establishing a revenue source to support such efforts.
Source: L. 2016: Entire part added, (HB 16-1453), ch. 189, p. 666, § 1, effective July 1.