Editor's Note: Michael Kaiser is the director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. He is one of the speakers for the upcoming US Security Awareness Summit in Philadelphia August 19. Below he discusses his talk on NCSA and how you can leverage the organization.
I am thrilled and honored to be speaking at the Security Awareness Summit in Philadelphia on August 19th. The day’s agenda looks fantastic, and hope I can add to attendees’ knowledge about how to build awareness efforts that have an impact. I will be talking about the National Cyber Security Alliance’s (NCSA) many programs that can be used to support awareness efforts in the workplace and with customers. NCSA was founded shortly after 9/11 by a visionary group of industry leaders who felt that not enough was being done to teach people to be safer and more secure online. From our earliest days, our organizational DNA included the premise that a safer, more secure and trusted Internet is a shared interest and best achieved by working together. Since our inception, we have grown into a well-known, public-private partnership organization working with industry, government and other NGOs worldwide to reach the broadest audiences possible with simple, actionable messaging to manage a secure digital life.
At the Summit, I will be focusing on many of the ways companies and organizations can engage in NCSA’s core initiatives including:
- National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM): Becoming a Champion of the month, using NCSA-created and NCSAM-branded materials and graphics, joining the awareness efforts on social media and more.
- STOP.THINK. CONNECT.: The STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign was created by NCSA and the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) and is celebrating its 5th Anniversary in this year. Organizations and companies can sign free licenses to adopt and use STOP. THINK. CONNECT. with their employees and customers.
- Data Privacy Day: Data Privacy Day, January 28th, celebrates the anniversary of the passage of Convention 108 in the EU that made privacy a human right. Like NCSAM, Data Privacy Day makes it easy to join the privacy awareness campaign with a host of materials and graphics that can bind organizational activities to the larger efforts including participation social media events.
NCSA works from some simple assumptions including: it’s critical that we we work together with harmonized messaging that people can hear from multiple, trusted sources, and we need to leverage each others’ good work to bring scalability and reach to our efforts. All NCSA activities are designed with this in mind. That’s why I am looking forward to speaking at the Summit and sharing ideas.
Bio: Michael Kaiser joined the National Cyber Security Alliance in 2008. As NCSA’s executive director, Mr. Kaiser engages diverse constituencies such as businesses, governments, and other non-profit organizations in NCSA’s broad public education and outreach efforts.
