Michigan vs. Hackers: State Is Winning Daily Battles . . . So Far

Michigan's government is on the winning side of a daily cyber-battle -- for now.

The state's IT security chief boasts to the Lansing State Journal about his team's success in fending off electronic thrusts that come an average of every two seconds.

That’s 187,000 cyber attacks blocked every day, according to Dan Lohrmann, Michigan’s chief security officer.

"We have not experienced any significant breaches."

What he calls attacks include scouting missions looking for vulnerabilities.

In 2012, the state of Michigan’s computer network blocked 1.2 million intrusion attempts and detected 24.5 million network scans, Lohrmann said.

Most of those threats are automated, operating much like a virus scan by searching for holes in the state’s cyber-defenses.

"A lot of the hackers are just trying to get a foothold," Lohrmann said. "Just like any criminal activity, once they find something that might be vulnerable, they dig deeper."

The state’s 50,000 employees continuously get cybersecurity training every other month for -- brace yourself now -- 10 minutes each time.