Student aid agency needs $500k for cybersecurity
Student aid agency needs $500k for cybersecurity
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article315760937.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-15 08:00:00
Source Domain: www.sacbee.com
Gov. Gavin Newsom, gives his last May revise in the Swing Space on Thursday, May 14, 2026. The expansion of paid parental leave will be absorbed within a discretionary cost-of-living adjustment provided in the budget proposal, according to Newsom’s staff.
A backup server. Annual IT maintenance. And an IT staffer.
Among other requests, the California Student Aid Commission — the agency that administers financial aid programs for college and university students — asked California’s final budget for $503,000 for its information technology needs. Secure and modern systems, it said, were necessary to ensure smooth-sailing access to resources for the 2.2 million students who apply for aid annually.
This expenditure, however, did not make it into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised 2026-27 budget released Thursday. It was not in his January budget proposal either, and will now likely be the subject of discussion between agency representatives and legislators before the final budget is passed in June.
“At a time of escalating cyberattacks targeting educational institutions nationwide, CSAC’s mission-critical request for a backup server and essential IT staffing was not included in the May Revise — despite recommendations from the California Department of Technology to the administration that CSAC needs redundant server infrastructure to meet modern data protection and continuity standards for administering state and federal financial aid,” Nicole Kangas, the commission’s spokesperson, said.
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