President surprises high level cyber meeting

Federal Drive

President surprises high level cyber meeting

Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge winners announced, Northrop takes home the Hoyt Vandenberg Award

Federal News Network Staff

July 15, 2010 9:42 am

2 min read

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White House cyber coordinator Howard Schmidt convened a meeting yesterday on moving the president’s cybersecurity agenda forward. Two cabinet secretaries attended and the President dropped in for a few minutes. One of the topics was ways to get the private sector to advance its own cybersecurity, especially for critical infrastructure. Alan Paller, the director of research for the SANS Institute, attended. Hear what he has to say about the meeting this morning on the Federal Drive.
Cybersecurity awareness could one day be championed by a character-icon, a lot like Smokey Bear. That’s one of the winning ideas in the Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS revealed six winners on Wednesday. They’ll use the ideas to help them build a big Cybersecurity Awarness Campaign that launches in October. One of the other winners proposed organizing a 5K race that would call attention to the dangers of malicious botnets.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded the Air Force Association’s Hoyt Vandenberg Award. The Award recognizes contributions to the field of aerospace education for its role as presenting sponsor of CyberPatriot. CyberPatriot is a national high-school cyber-defense competition that teaches students about national cybersecurity. The defense contractor has promised to invest time and resources over the 2010-2011 school year to coach teams and mentor students in cybersecurity. The award will be presented in September, at the AFA Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

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