The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today issued for public comment on a draft strategic plan for the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) program. The plan, "Building a Digital Nation," outlines NICE's mission, vision, goals and objectives. NIST and its interagency NICE partners seek comments from all interested citizens and organizations concerned with cybersecurity awareness, training and education.

NIST coordinates the interagency NICE program, which is a national campaign focused on enhancing cybersecurity in the United States by accelerating the availability of educational and training resources designed to improve the cyber behavior, skills and knowledge of every segment of the population. The program aims to improve secure use and access to digital information in a way that advances America's economic prosperity and national security.

"This plan represents the coordinated thinking of the federal agencies that have leading roles in NICE," said NIST's Ernest McDuffie, who leads the NICE program. "We are soliciting feedback from the larger population to inform and improve the planning process for this comprehensive national initiative."

Comments on the NICE draft strategic plan are due by September 12, 2011. NIST's federal partners that contributed to the plan include the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Personnel Management and the National Security Agency.

The second annual NICE workshop, "Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity Education—Engaging Americans in Securing Cyberspace," will be held Sept. 20-22, 2011 at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Md., and will include discussion of the strategic plan. Government, academia and industry, as well as professionals from small- and medium-sized businesses are expected to be represented at the workshop.

To read the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education strategic plan, visit http://go.usa.gov/KFv. Comments should be entered into the Comment-Template_Draft-NICE.xls, available at http://go.usa.gov/KFw, and e-mailed to nicestratplan@nist.gov.