Idaho Governor Brad Little has proclaimed October Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Idaho state employees, as well as our partners from cities, counties, federal, and the private sector, work hard every day to protect Idahoans from the constant attempts from malicious actors trying to exploit us for financial gain or disrupt our lives.
The Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) would like to take a moment to call out some of the cybersecurity activities that we and our partners provide.
1. Operation Cyber Idaho. Operation Cyber Idaho is a Department of Homeland Security funded statewide initiative in partnership with the Idaho Military Division and the Idaho Office of Emergency Management. It focuses on improving cyber readiness, threat detection, and coordinated response across public agencies. ITS helps place apprentices in local, city, county, and state agencies where they can share their education in cybersecurity and learn real world practical skills.
2. Idaho Readiness Training with the National Guard. ITS partners with the Idaho National Guard to perform joint exercises to strengthen the ability of the State of Idaho to respond to cyber threats quickly and effectively. Over the last year, the IRT program has worked with 17 local, city, county, and state agencies to provide the following services:
- Vulnerability Assessments
- Cybersecurity Consultations
- Tabletops
- Cybersecurity Awareness Presentations
- Cybersecurity Trainings
In June 2025, the Idaho National Guard and ITS performed a live exploit and penetration testing exercise called Idaho Cyber Discovery 2025. This exercise had 94 participants representing 10 different entities over two weeks.
3. Cybersecurity Education. ITS, in partnership with the Division of Human Resources, the State Controller’s Office, and other state agencies, provide yearly cybersecurity training using KnowBe4. This training consists of specifically selected cybersecurity training modules selected by ITS with the goal of demonstrating what hostile cyberattacks look like and what users should do when they encounter them. Depending on the state agency, this training is provided in Luma, the agency’s own learning portals, or directly from KnowBe4.
4. Phishing Education. Using KnowBe4, ITS sends emails that test the user’s ability to spot malicious emails in a safe environment. While nobody enjoys being phished, it has proven to be an effective method of reducing the number of malicious emails that users act on. On average, nearly 30% of users worldwide click on phishing emails. In the September 2025 Phishing Campaign, 10,977 users across 54 participating agencies received the test phishing emails. Only 353 people (3%) clicked on the emails and of those, only 176 people (1.6%) opened the attachments.
If you or your agency are interested in participating or obtaining services from Cyber Idaho, the IRT, Cybersecurity Education or Phishing education, please email cyber@its.idaho.gov
