Arkansas House Bill HB1549

Arkansas 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/20/25
• Refer: 2/20/25
• Report Pass: 3/19/25
• Engrossed: 3/20/25
• Refer: 3/20/25
• Report Pass: 3/31/25
• Enrolled: 4/2/25
• Chaptered: 4/8/25
• Passed: 4/8/25

Caption

To Create The Arkansas Cybersecurity Act Of 2025.

Impact

The introduction of the Arkansas Cybersecurity Act could significantly impact the way state agencies approach cybersecurity. By centralizing the responsibility for cybersecurity within the State Cybersecurity Office, state agencies would be required to align their practices with state-level governance standards. This central oversight is intended to create a more unified and organized response to the increasing threat of cyber attacks, which has become a pressing issue in state and government operations.

Summary

House Bill 1549, titled the 'Arkansas Cybersecurity Act of 2025', aims to establish a dedicated State Cybersecurity Office responsible for overseeing and managing cybersecurity efforts for state agencies. This act is a response to growing concerns about cybersecurity threats and seeks to create a robust framework for protecting state information technology systems. The bill emphasizes the need for effective governance policies, procedures, and standards to guard against unauthorized access and to ensure data integrity across various state platforms.

Contention

One notable aspect of the bill may be the pushback it could receive related to the allocation of resources and the extent of control that the State Cybersecurity Office will hold over personnel. As the bill mandates that cybersecurity personnel report to this central office, there may be concerns among individual agencies regarding the loss of autonomy over their cybersecurity operations. Additionally, the requirement for regular audits and compliance monitoring could be viewed as a heavy-handed approach by some agencies, which may argue for more localized control to tailor responses to their specific cybersecurity needs.