Newsom brags about his high-tech 'defense' plan — as it puts America at catastrophic risk

On Saturday, August 8, the local government in Suisun City, California, completely froze. Hackers broke into the city's computers, locked down the system, and forced officials to call an emergency. Workers couldn’t access basic files, run local offices, or keep normal operations moving.

Two days later, on Monday, August 10, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced a brand-new "AI Cyber Defense Program." Newsom’s press team went into overdrive, boasting about this “first-in-the-nation” initiative. But being first is no guarantee of being good, and this plan is very bad.

Instead of sending immediate money or technical experts to fix broken local computers, Newsom’s big fix is to hire more bosses. He is telling state agencies to name an "AI cybersecurity officer" for every department and set up another state-level office. Small towns are getting hit by real ransomware today, and Sacramento’s answers are inflated job titles and publicity campaigns.

Hostile foreign governments view California's weak systems as prime targets.

This predictable act of layering yet more bureaucracy on top of California's morass is especially dangerous. Hostile foreign governments are actively targeting American infrastructure.

A tidal wave of danger

State-sponsored hackers from Russia, China, and Iran are scanning for weak spots in real time. These foreign adversaries are targeting the basic services that millions of Americans rely on every day.

Federal investigators recently uncovered Iranian-backed hackers targeting more than 30 water utilities across Minnesota. These terrorists would love nothing more than to bring America’s largest state to its knees. Imagine turning on the tap in your California kitchen and finding out the treatment plant was shut down by hackers operating out of Tehran or Beijing. Imagine a Russian cyber unit turning off the electricity grid during a 105-degree heat wave or freezing local 911 dispatch software so that emergency calls go unanswered. That is the real danger facing regular families.

Governor Newsom's response to this massive crisis is filled with fancy-sounding distraction programs designed to look good on paper while accomplishing virtually nothing. He boasts about a consumer web tool named DROP, which lets residents ask data brokers to delete their personal info; a worker study project called Engaged California; and an "Innovation Council" accelerator stacked with tech executives and academics.

None of these projects stop a hostile missile site or a foreign military cyber unit from locking down your neighborhood's water main. A small town trying to fix its emergency systems gets zero help from state-sponsored talking shops that focus on "listening at scale" while real-world servers burn.

When a city network gets locked, administrators need real-world backup teams, emergency funding, and simple hardware upgrades. They need basic password protections, isolated off-site backups, and physical network engineers, not empty political pledges about "responsible AI innovation." Telling an underfunded county government to hire an advisory officer is like handing a firefighter a pamphlet on fire safety while the building burns down around him.

RELATED: The latest cybercrime turns security systems against you — and there's no good defense

Robert Wicher/Getty Images

It shifts the burden to local workers who lack the cash to fix the problem, while Sacramento pats itself on the back for creating another layer of red tape. It’s cruel, and it’s reckless.

Sitting ducks

The state government collects hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars every year, yet leaves everyday infrastructure running on decade-old, unprotected software. California is home to the richest technology companies in the world, but your local city hall relies on systems that can be breached by a savvy teenager using off-the-shelf software. Hostile foreign governments from Moscow to Tehran know this, and they view California's weak local systems as prime targets to paralyze American life.

Imagine the chaos and the carnage. What happened in Suisun City, home to 29,000 people, was wake-up call enough. Now, imagine a blackout like that striking San Francisco, a city of over 810,000 residents on which America's tech security depends, or Los Angeles, a crucial logistics hub with a massive population approaching 3.9 million.

Power grids going dead for hours, cell towers dropping, and panicking residents realizing they are completely unable to contact 911 dispatch. Traffic lights instantly go dark, emergency response grinds to a total halt, and municipal services go offline overnight. Widespread looting, mass panic, and violent crime would spill across city streets within hours.

The movie "The Purge" was written as Hollywood fiction, but an automated, state-sponsored cyber strike on California’s crumbling public infrastructure could turn that apocalyptic nightmare into an immediate reality.

Sacramento should treat serious national security threats as existential threats. Instead, it reduces them to paperwork and procedure. When the next city's power or emergency lines freeze, Newsom will likely sign another executive order and announce another committee. California families deserve working water taps, reliable power lines, and real defenses against foreign enemies. They deserve a governor who takes their safety seriously and does everything in his power to ensure the state is prepared for the worst.