Today, leading technology companies announced the creation of the Cyber Security Research Alliance (CSRA). The CSRA is a private, non-profit research consortium formed in response to the growing need for increased public-private collaboration to address complex problems in cyber security. The founding members of the CSRI are Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Honeywell, Intel Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and RSA/EMC.

President Obama has prioritized cyber threats as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation and a dependency to America's economic prosperity in the 21st century.

CSRA seeks to achieve coordinated industry participation to address national cyber security research and development (R&D) imperatives and bridge the gap between government funded R&D and commercially available products and solutions in cyber security. CSRA will focus on challenges that are bigger than any one company, consortium, sector or nation and ensure that government, industry and academia collaborate on in-depth problem understanding and definition.

"The CSRA is organized to leverage expertise, from member companies and partners in government and academia," said Lee Holcomb, president of the CSRA and vice president of strategic initiatives, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions. "Together we hope to create viable, game changing cyber security solutions."

The CSRA is discussing with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the arrangement for a joint cyber security research symposium in early 2013 to connect researchers and early adopters from across the private, academic, and government sectors.

"Putting into practice the exciting cyber security innovations that emerge from research requires active partnerships between government and industry and also among private sector stakeholders," said Chuck Romine, Director of NIST's Information Technology Laboratory. "The emergence of CSRA can strengthen both kinds of partnerships and we look forward to working with this new organization to promote a trustworthy cyberspace for our nation and its citizens."

Initially, CSRA will focus on building the organization and developing viable collaboration models. Activities and focus areas for the organization will include:

• Prioritizing the "grand challenges" in cyber security through the collaboration of all stakeholders
• Tracking cyber security R&D activities
• Developing viable approaches to technology transfer