CYBER-EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PROJECT FOR COMMUNITY READINESS

The Center for Information Age Transformation (CIAT) invites citizen participation in a project using social networking to bring communities together to start improving cybersecurity preparedness at the local level. The CIAT leadership has created a LinkedIn collaboration group, The Cyber-Resilient Community Dialogue, to facilitate this effort. A link to the site is provided below. Join the dialogue and participate in a grassroots effort to improve cybersecurity emergency preparedness and readiness.

This project will enable collaboration between community champions and cybersecurity experts to ascertain ways that communities can improve their preparedness, educate their constituents, and prioritize approaches toward improving their cybersecurity posture. Grassroots efforts are needed because the threat is asymmetric, and raising situational awareness on a cross-community basis as a strategy holds great promise to counter this threat. Yet, only a handful of communities are focusing on cybersecurity at the community level.

Community efforts also hold promise for incubating a "cyber marketplace" that will ultimately deliver market forces to both combat the threat, and also generate economic development and job creation in a critical area for our Nation's future security and prosperity. The Cyber-Resilient Community Dialogue welcomes the support in this project from San Antonio's CyberCityUSA and the Western Cyber Initiative and its stakeholders in New Mexico and Colorado.

The CIAT leadership will manage and monitor the collaboration site and extract promising focus areas for subsequent action by the CIAT and partnering entities. The CIAT's home within the Rocky Mountain Technology Alliance, with its large membership and association with leading companies and national laboratories, enables a transition pathway toward resource marshaling, scalability, and commercialization, so that good ideas can quickly transition to actionable solutions.

The LinkedIn site can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CyberResilient-Community-Dialogue-4185564?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr. CIAT is using the social networking site to reach the widest audience possible. Registering with LinkedIn is an individual decision, and any non-member wishing to participate in this effort may follow the CIAT site and watch for actionable initiatives to take shape.

The CIAT also extends its appreciation to i2 Information Security Corporation for supporting this project, and in its ongoing support to the Center for Information Age Transformation. Any questions concerning the CIAT or the LinkedIn group should be directed at Doug DePeppe, CIAT Co-Founder, 719.785.0355.