State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, has introduced a bill that would ban certain social media apps from state-owned or state-issued devices such as cellphones after a significant data breach occurred in December.

With Senate Bill 74, Dodd seeks to prohibit use on state devices of “high-risk” apps such as TikTok, which has raised concern among authorities such as FBI Director Christopher Wray, who warned that the Chinese-owned company could pose a cybersecurity threat and be used for espionage.

In December, a ban on high-risk social media apps such as TikTok on federal devices went into effect.

“Social media apps are ubiquitous in our daily lives,” Dodd said in a statement, “but there is growing concern about information theft and data collection that comes with their use.”

Dodd said he was concerned about “bad actors” accessing state-associated devices to get to sensitive information or tracking data, as well as the risk of data breaches.

Dodd’s office said that the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) revealed a cybersecurity incident in the Department of Finance. OES released a statement about the issue in December but declined to give specifics, other than to say that it was a cybersecurity “intrusion” significant enough to mobilize multiple public and private agencies, from the California Highway Patrol to the California Military Department, which oversees the National Guard.

According to Dodd, a global ransomware group was behind the intrusion and stole 76 gigabytes of data.

Dodd already has the support of the Consumer Federation of California, which “welcomes a comprehensive approach to this issue,” according to executive director Robert Herrell.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.