Open Letter to Prioritize Community Cybersecurity CLTC UC Berkeley Center for LongTerm Cybersecurity

pSupport the future of cybersecurityppBerkeley School of InformationppTO ppThe Trump and Harris Transition TeamsWhite House Office of the National Cyber DirectorUS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security AgencyThe 119th United States CongressppThe Honorable Congressman Mark GreenThe Honorable Congressman Bennie ThompsonThe Honorable Senator Gary PetersThe Honorable Senator Rand PaulppppThe federal government focuses primarily on cybersecurity as it relates to national security This priority is essential but the framing allows many small critical organizations to fall through the cracks including public organizations like small municipalities and rural school districts as well as critical nonprofits like food banks legal aid and social services The impact of cyber attacks on community organizations is devastating and disproportionately affects the poorest Americans who rely on the critical services they provide Collectively these incidents degrade our economic wellbeing and public health and safetyppPublic life would not function without the thousands of small local organizations that make America work Students learn at 14000 school districts across the country and residents receive essential services from 312000 US nonprofits and shop at 332 million small businesses But many of these organizations lack the resources training and access to protect themselves from common cyber attacks and are often referred to as targetrich and resourcepoor or below the cyber poverty line a term coined by cybersecurity expert Wendy NatherppWe strongly urge the next administration regardless of political affiliation to prioritize strengthening the cybersecurity of these underresourced community organizations ppWe represent local leaders in academia civil society industry and philanthropy sectors who work day in and day out to patch the gaps in cybersecurity services and funding for these organizations We stand at the ready to help deploy federal support to communities across the country to ensure local cyber resilienceppCurrent government initiatives provide a solid foundation that can be expanded through additional support funding and direct assistance but are not enough to meet the need of the moment These initiatives includeppWe should not expect a local food bank or elementary school to defend itself from professional cyber criminals and we should not accept the risk that they may fail According to US Chamber of Commerce 27 of small businesses reported that they are one disaster or threat away from shutting down their business These threats only grow greater as organizations across the nation face escalating attacks by commercial and statebacked cyber criminals Now is the moment to protect targetrich resourcepoor organizations for the benefit of communities across the country and the security of our nationppSignedppThe UC Berkeley Center for LongTerm CybersecurityppandppAcademic OrganizationsppNonprofits and Think TanksppPhilanthropic Organizations and FoundationsppCompaniesppSecurity Researchers and Experts IndividualppFor further information and to reach out to signatories please contact Sarah PowazekDirector Public Interest CybersecuritypowazekberkeleyeduppppppCLTC is looking for additional trusted nonpartisan organizations and researchers to sign the letter Please fill out a brief Google form if you would like to be added as a signatorypppp


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