National Cybersecurity Alliance

Our alliance stands for the safe and secure use of all technology. We encourage everyone to do their part to prevent digital wrongdoing of any kind, with the ultimate goal of realizing a more secure, interconnected world.

Public awareness: We aim to raise public awareness about online privacy and educate citizens on how to manage their personal information and keep it secure. We aim to empower individuals and organizations to own their role in protecting their data by implementing stronger security practices.

Small Business security: With virtually all business data kept on internet-connected platforms, we aim to train small businesses on best practices and equip them with tools to evaluate their current security measures and identify areas of improvement.

Cybersecurity workforce: As the security workforce shortage shows no sign of being resolved soon, businesses and organizations understand the importance of establishing a pipeline of young graduates to fill these critical jobs in the years ahead. Because many organizations also have initiatives to increase diversity in their workforce, we see a convergence of these two issues and have set a goal to help more minority graduates fill cybersecurity roles.

Awareness strategies include: Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Data Privacy Week, Nasdaq Day, webinars, educational articles and blog posts. NCA works with a public relations firm to amplify our data care messages through national press tours, up to date messaging on our website and social media.

Cybersecurity workforce: HBCU Career Program: NCA will launch a career development and mentorship program for students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The program will support students studying Computer Science or Cybersecurity through the job search process, with an emphasis on first generation college students who frequently lack the context to navigate the corporate recruiting process. In-person events will be held at HBCUs with speakers who are recent HBCU alumni working in security or privacy, plus corporate recruiters. These events will feature panel discussions and interview and life skills training to help students land a job in security or privacy. The program also includes a mentoring program, with a database of mentors and mentees.

NCA’s CyberSecure My Business (CSMB) program engages small businesses, academia, federal agencies, and SLTTs via in-person workshops and monthly webinars to share best practices and tools for under-resourced organizations. The interactive workshops are non-technical and based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 5 Steps of Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover with content in layman’s terms for small- and medium-sized business leaders. In 2019, the program reached 800 SMBs at workshops, and as in-person events resume, NCA aims to surpass this number. Attendees will leave with a foundational data security plan for their organization. NCA will follow up with those groups to check on their progress, measure effectiveness, and offer resources.