The Hewlett Foundation has granted $15M apiece to the University of California at Berkeley, MIT and Stanford University to conduct cybersecurity policy research, bringing to $65 the total that the foundation has committed to such research over the next 5 years.
According to the foundation, "The grants to MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley are intended to jump-start a new field of cyber policy analysis—generating a robust 'marketplace of ideas' about how best to enhance the trustworthiness of computer systems and appropriately balance rights of privacy, the need for data security, innovation, and the broader public interest."
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MIT's Cybersecurity Policy Initiative will focus on establishing quantitative metrics and models to help inform policymakers, and will bring together researchers from the fields of engineering, management and social science. UC Berkeley's Center for Long-Term CyberSecurity will examine where cybersecurity might be headed in years to come. Stanford’s Cyber Initiative will target core themes of trustworthiness and governance of networks. (The Hewlett Foundation has been a huge donor to Stanford over the years.)
October was designated National Cybersecurity Awareness Month by the U.S. government.