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vulnerabilities and their fallout remain a serious challenge. How can we activate this type of
campaign?

• Engage a consortium of leaders from government, industry, academia, and non-
profits, as well as the wide array of associations National Governor’s Association,
National Association of State CIO’s, National League of Cities, National Association
of Counties, U. S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation and others,
building on current efforts such as the National Cyber Security Alliance and the DHS
Stop, Think, & Connect campaign.

• Leverage the government agencies with regular contact with citizens, like the Small
Business Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Service, Federal
Trade Commission, and others, to distribute materials offering insights or pointing to
a website where they can get information about how to protect themselves.

• Similar efforts should be made with state, local, tribal, and territorial constituents.

Our elected officials can and should lead by example. Each of them should include links and
information on their constituent home pages pointing to information about basic cyber
security hygiene and how to better protect themselves from an infection in cyberspace.

Better conveying cybersecurity’s impact on the daily lives of Americans and making it
relatable is crucial to broadening awareness. Building a common sense approach to
cybersecurity will help empower individuals and demonstrate how to positively contribute to
the health of our cyber-ecosystem.

This approach will not solve all of the cybersecurity risk management challenge. However,
addressing the 80 percent hygiene challenge will make a significant positive impact on
raising our overall security profile and disrupting the efforts of the bad guys. None of us can
do everything, but all of us can do something.

Let’s get going.

[1] http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/protecting_the_federal_government_information_systems/wh
y_did_study#t=1

About the author

Bob Dix is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Critical
Infrastructure Protection for Juniper Networks. Dix has enjoyed a
distinguished career in both the public and private sector, and is widely
recognized across industry and government as a subject matter expert and
a leading policy expert in furthering government/industry partnerships to
protect U.S. critical infrastructure.

20 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2014 Edition
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