NIST celebrates cyber partnerships

The National Institute of Standards and Technology celebrated public/private collaboration on April 15 with a ceremony honoring the inaugural members of NIST's National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership initiative.

Partner companies include Intel, HyTrust, McAfee, Cisco Systems, Splunk, RSA, Symantec, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Vanguard Integrity Professionals and Venafi.

NIST Director Patrick Gallagher was slated to address ceremony attendees at the agency's Rockville, Md., headquarters. Also scheduled to speak were Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.); Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley; Montgomery County, Md., Executive Ike Leggett; and Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command.

The program is a formal initiative under the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCOE) and is designed to foster public/private partnerships in the cyber arena with the goal of accelerating wider adoption of integrated solutions and technologies, according to the center's website.

"The NCCOE's mission is to bring together experts from industry, government and academia under one roof to develop practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the real-world needs of complex IT systems," a Federal Register notice states. "By accelerating dissemination and use of these integrated tools and technologies for protecting IT assets, the NCCOE strives to enhance trust in U.S. IT communications, data, and storage systems; lower risk for companies and individuals in the use of IT systems; and encourage development of innovative, job-creating cybersecurity products and services."

Companies interested in participating in the National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership initiative are invited to send letters of interest to NIST. Further information can be found in the Federal Register notice.