NIST Renews Cyber Center Partnership, Launches Small Business Focus
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio, Maryland Secretary of Commerce Kevin Anderson, and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich sign a partnership agreement at the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. Rich Press/NIST
The agency renewed its partnerships that support the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and launched the NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Community of Interest.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology strengthened its cybersecurity efforts on Tuesday by renewing its partnerships with the state of Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland that underpin the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and by launching a new Small Business Cybersecurity Community of Interest, according to an agency announcement.
The groups entered into a five-year agreement to extend their partnership for NCCoE—a “collaborative hub where industry, government and academic experts work together to solve pressing cybersecurity challenges” that was established in 2012. The renewal will help better address companies’ and institutions’ needs, particularly those of small businesses, by asking Maryland and Montgomery County governments to further their efforts to facilitate NCCoE’s relationships with companies based in the state.
According to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, NCCoE is “an ideal place and way for federal, state and local governments to join forces and tackle tough cybersecurity issues.”
The agreement will also help boost NCCoE’s work with local public schools and the state’s academic institutions to support developing the future cyber workforce through internships.
The agency also established the NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Community of Interest within the center, which will give small businesses several ways to collaborate with and utilize NCCoE’s capabilities and solutions.
“This initiative will help to make sure that NIST’s guidance is both meaningful and practical for smaller companies and other organizations to put into use,” Graves said. “Beyond benefiting the NCCoE and its participants, this new community of interest promises to improve the return on all of NIST’s investments in cybersecurity research, standards, guidelines and practices.”