The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has requested $1.5 million (1.1 million EUR) to protect the sensitive information stored on the agency’s computer networks.
According to WLTX, DHEC Director Catherine Templeton has told a senate finance committee that they need the money for network and data security, hardware updates and software enhancements.
The money would apparently not be used to fund personnel.
DHEC’s request comes shortly after the South Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR) suffered a data breach as a result of which the details of millions of individuals and 657,000 businesses were stolen by cybercriminals.
In December 2012, state budget leaders approved a $20 million (15 million EUR) loan to help the DOR cover the costs of the incident.