Last week, Secretary Napolitano announced the “National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge.” This initiative will call upon industry leaders as well as the public to give ideas on how to enhance cybersecurity awareness.

In her address at a conference in San Francisco, Napolitano declared, “We need to recognize that those answers are found not just in Silicon Valley or Washington D.C., but in the wisdom of crowds, in the creativity of a classroom, a series of small refinements and large technological leaps.”

Ideas for the campaign need to be submitted by April 30. What will the winner of the contest receive? He or she will be invited to an event in DC at the end of the spring to work with the department in the planning process of the campaign that will be launched in October, during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

This contest prize aligns with the release of the memo by Zients on Monday because it is not an end in itself, but it is a way to spur more innovation in change. Ideas can be submitted to this website: http://www.dhs.gov/files/cyber-awareness-campaign.shtm