Homeland Security wants you to know your cybersecurity ABCs

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week unveiled an initiative that calls on industry experts and the public to develop ways to enhance their awareness of cybersecurity.

Speaking at a security conference in San Francisco, Napolitano said the National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge invites cyber professionals and anyone who is interested to submit ideas for improving the public's security awareness and literacy.

"We need to recognize that those answers are found not just in Silicon Valley or Washington, D.C., but in the wisdom of crowds, in the creativity of a classroom, a series of small refinements and large technological leaps," she said. "It's local, regional, national and global."

Individuals interested in participating in the campaign must submit a proposal on the campaign's Web site by April 30. Proposals will be judged in part based on teamwork, the level of privacy protections and the use of Web 2.0 technologies.

Winners of the contest will be invited to an event in Washington in late spring to collaborate with the department in the planning the campaign and to prepare it for a launch during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Napolitano said.

Napolitano announced the campaign one day after the White House unveiled the unclassified details of its Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. The plan outlines the Obama administration's key goals for securing the United States in cyberspace, including establishing a front line of defense against immediate threats, boosting counterintelligence and expanding cybersecurity education.

Napolitano lauded the department's efforts in improving cybersecurity, particularly through the ongoing development of an intrusion detection system called Einstein to identify malicious cyber activity and improve cybersecurity support across government. DHS has deployed the second phase of Einstein to 11 federal agencies and will roll out the system to 10 more by the end of this year, she said.

The department also is testing the technology for the third phase of Einstein, which will provide DHS with the ability to automatically detect malicious activity and disable attempted intrusions before harm is done to critical networks and systems.

Napolitano also outlined DHS' commitment to recruiting and retaining a top-notch cybersecurity workforce governmentwide. Homeland Security is using a new federal hiring authority to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity professionals during the next three years. The department is looking for the "best brains" to fill those jobs, she said.

"I can't stress enough that really a secure cyber environment is as much about people and habits and culture as it is about machines," Napolitano said. "Even the most elegant technological solution will ultimately fail unless it has the support of talented professionals and of a public that understands how to stay safe when online."