National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge

March 4, 2010 - The Department of Homeland Security is working with many organizations, both individually and through the National Cyber Security Alliance, to find ways of raising public awareness of cybersecurity. As we develop strategies and messages that will resonate with various groups, we want the benefit of your ideas on how you would get the word out to your colleagues, or your friends, or your parents and children. This competition will gather and share publicly the best, most creative ideas for making the public more cyber secure, cyber smart, and cyber assured.

The Challenge
The National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge Competition is designed to solicit ideas from industry and individuals alike on how best we can clearly and comprehensively discuss cybersecurity with the American public.

Key areas that should be factored into the competition are the following:

•Teamwork
•Ability to quantify the distribution method
•Ability to quantify the receipt of message
•Solution may under no circumstance create spam
•Use of Web 2.0 Technology
•Feedback mechanism
•List building
•Privacy protection
•Repeatability
•Transparency
•Message

It should engage the Private Sector and Industry leaders to develop their own campaign strategy and metrics to track how to get a unified cyber security message out to the American public.

Proposals should be submitted in Word format by April 30, 2010 and should include the following:

•Company name, Point of Contact and contact information
•Outline of Campaign Strategy
◦Strategic overview of plan and definition of success
◦Organizations involved
◦Target audience
◦Timeline
◦Metrics used to define success.

•Distribution of Message
◦Communication methods to reach targeted audience

■Traditional media/PSAs
■New Media
■Literature/Pamphlets

Winners of the Challenge will be invited to an event in Washington D.C. in late May or early June. Winners will partner with the Department to lead in the planning of the National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign and to ready the campaign for its launch during Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.