Cybersecurity Contest Winners Named

The Homeland Security Department on Wednesday named the winners of its National Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge, in which individuals and businesses competed for the best promotional campaigns that raise the public's awareness about information security.

The six winning entries, picked from 80 submissions, will be used to kick off the department's National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign in October to coincide with National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

The winners are:

1. Deloitte's "Think Before You Click" campaign won the Best Iconic and Overall Structure category. (Side note: This campaign really should be targeted to federal employees.)

2. San Diego and Maine both won in the Best Local/Community Plan category.

3. The Beekeeper Group and LegalNetWORKS won the Most Creative award for their Trot Against Bots campaign. The idea: Work with city officials to organize a 5K road race "that would illustrate how a single runner (symbolizing a botnet) may not shut down traffic, but a group can (vehicle traffic would symbolize Internet traffic)."

4. Melissa Short, a resident of Roanoke, Va., won in the Best Individual Plan category for her Cybersecurity Starts Here campaign, which includes developing a cybersecurity awareness portal and the Cybersecurity Ambassador Program.

5. The Best Educational Plan award went to Penn State University, which proposed creating the CyberLink Games: the CyberLink Duo, which helps players understand societal views of cybersecurity risk, and the CyberLink Solo, which educates players on cybersecurity threats.

6. Cisco Systems won the Best Publicity and Marketing plan category for their Cybersecurity is Everyone's Responsibility campaign. Cisco proposed creating an educational cybersecurity portal and a cybersecurity "IQ challenge."