President Obama Supports STOP. THINK. CONNECT.

On Feb. 9, 2016, President Obama issued a statement to bolster the nation’s cybersecurity. In this statement, the president announced the implementation of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), which will initiate near-term actions and put in place a long-term strategy to enhance cybersecurity awareness, protect privacy and maintain public safety as well as economic and national security. This plan specifically called for a new national cybersecurity awareness plan spearheaded by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) that will build off the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign and focus on multi-factor authentication and account security.

NCSA and the White House are partnering with a number of companies and nonprofits to collaborate on online safety and security efforts. These organizations are committed to supporting President Obama’s effort to increase awareness about key security steps that all Americans can and should take, such as enabling two-factor authentication to strengthen the security of their online accounts. We are excited to launch this initiative and look forward to partnering with industry and nonprofit organizations to promote a safer, more secure and more trusted Internet for all digital citizens.

On March 3, NCSA hosted a luncheon at RSA Conference in San Francisco to discuss securing the Internet of Things (IoT). The luncheon was attended by high-level executives in industry and government and featured remarks by Christopher Painter, coordinator for cyber issues at the U.S. Department of State, Suzanne E. Spaulding, under secretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Phyllis Schneck, deputy under secretary, cybersecurity and communications, NPPD at DHS and Michael Daniel, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the White House. Additionally, I moderated a panel discussion featuring three NCSA board members – Janet Bishop-Levesque, chief information security officer at RSA, The Security Division of EMC, Anthony Grieco, senior director of Cisco’s Security and Trust Organization and Andrew Lee, CEO of ESET North America. At the luncheon, speakers discussed the security opportunities and challenges presented by the growing Internet of Things, the importance of raising public awareness of cybersecurity and online safety issues and how we can better educate digital citizens about the implications of their online actions and the growth of technology.

At the RSA Conference luncheon, speakers discussed how CNAP addresses long-term strategic goals regarding the United States’ cybersecurity. One of the key pieces of CNAP is to empower the public and raise digital citizens’ awareness of the roles they play in online safety and security. NCSA encourages organizations to answer CNAP’s call to action by supporting STOP. THINK. CONNECT.’s online safety awareness and education efforts. Your organization can take action in the following ways:

• Sign NCSA’s letter of support: Join the more than 25 organizations that have already signed on to support the CNAP effort and the close to 600 globally that support STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Help us build a campaign to encourage the use of multi-factor authentication and other key online safety behaviors. After signing, we will contact you to discuss further engagement. 

• Start educating consumers: If your organization currently offers multi-factor authentication or other methods of securing customer accounts, take steps now to help them quickly and easily find and turn on those account security features, such as linking to the information from a sign-on page, emailing them with information or otherwise making the feature widely known. 

• Become a STOP. THINK. CONNECT. partner: Sign on as a STOP. THINK. CONNECT. partner – it’s easy and free and only requires signing our license agreement. As a licensed partner, you can directly integrate STOP. THINK. CONNECT. content into your own campaign materials. Additionally, partners receive access to our Partner Resource Center to download logos, templates and other materials. 


We hope you will join us in this collaborative effort to educate digital citizens on ways to stay safer and more secure online. We will continue to provide updates on the campaign and our efforts to support CNAP and the president’s call to action on our website and through our social media and communications channels. To learn more about the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign, visit stopthinkconnect.org or dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect.