Legislature technology upgrade to cost $890K | Local News
Legislature technology upgrade to cost $890K | Local News
Publish Date: 2026-02-16 04:47:00
Source Domain: www.postguam.com
Officials said the Guam Legislature is well overdue for an upgrade to its technology system, and Bill 262-38 by Vice Speaker Tony Ada would appropriate some $890,000 to enhance the system and to meet the minimum nationally recognized cybersecurity standards for legislative systems.
During a public hearing Monday, the Legislature’s executive director, Joanne Camacho, said the money will pay for a system to protect legislative operations, sensitive data, and continuity of government.
“We must stop kicking the can down the road and address this long-standing, way overdue issue of technology upgrades for the Legislature. Upgrades which have not occurred in more than 10 years is simply no longer acceptable,” Camacho said.
Justin Peredo, the 38th Guam Legislature’s IT support officer, said, “These measures are critical in safeguarding the sensitive legislative data, ensuring continuity of operation, and meeting recognized cybersecurity standards such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Center of Internet Security.”
Peredo said as a public-facing body, the Legislature is “a highly visible target for cybercriminals, ransomware groups, political hacktivists, and foreign threat actors.”
“Because Guam operates in a strategically significant region in the Indo-Pacific, government systems may face elevated geopolitical risk compared to many mainland municipalities,” he added.
The Legislature suffered an incident last May that knocked out its system, and the root cause was determined to be a prior system misconfiguration. “The failure was internal in nature and not a result of (an) external cyberattack,” Peredo acknowledged.
But the operational impact was significant, as the system experienced slowdowns for approximately two to three weeks. “The Guam Legislature experienced a critical failure of its financial department…
