[Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] Office of Science and Technology

Roundtable on Securing Networks through Open Innovation

Posted by Aneesh Chopra, Keith Alexander, and Howard Schmidt on July 29, 2011 at 1:19 PM EDT

This week, as part of President Obama's cybersecurity strategy, we hosted a roundtable discussion at the White House Conference Center with a broad range of cybersecurity innovators from the public, private, academic, and non-profit communities. The intent was to explore ways to harness the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people to ensure the United States, which led the world in developing the Internet economy, will be the first to secure the networks that support it.

The roundtable participants focused on applying our model of open innovation, emphasizing the government's role as "impatient convener," on possible designs for a cyber challenge that would advance our goals for changing the game in cybersecurity. Ideas included applying gaming dynamics, tapping into a growing pool of STEM students, and encouraging entrepreneurs with promising ideas.

Recognizing cyberspace as a strategic national asset, one of the President's first actions on taking office was to order a top-to-bottom review of cybersecurity policy. Two central tenets of that review were Encouraging Innovation and Sharing Responsibility for Cybersecurity. We continue to stay focused on these tenets by exploring new ways in which we can improve the security of the nation's networks.

We would like to personally thank all of the very talented leaders who participated in this active discussion. The ideas that emerged from this brainstorming session will help us refine our thinking on cyber challenge concepts. Stay tuned as we will be reaching out to the broader community soon for more input!

Cyber Challenge Roundtable Participants: