The directors of the APWG, inspired by research from its eCrime Symposium and compelled by discussions with its members, called for the establishment of a Messaging Convention in 2009 to develop and deploy a universal cybersecurity awareness campaign of shared messaging assets to guide all users worldwide in the safe use of ICT

The proposed program of research inspired the stakeholders’ meeting in July 2009 at Fox Interactive in Beverly Hills, mustering global companies, universities and research centers who launched the development program that would establish the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign. The first subsequent national STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign was organized by the US Department of Homeland Security in October 2010. DHS maintains the the campaign to this day as the cybersecurity awareness campaign of the US federal government.

To date, the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention, an independent non-profit, has launched the global STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaign in 24 countries in partnership with national cabinet-level ministries, national government agencies and national-scale non-profit organizations.

Join the Messaging Convention today and unite our world against predictable, common cybercrime and cyber risks, user by user, nation by nation.

The STOP. THINK. CONNECT. slogan, logo and advisory suite were created by an unprece-dented coalition of commercial enterprises, nonprofits and govern-ment agencies who recognized the power of a unified cybersecurity awareness messaging campaign compared to an uncountable number of uncoordinated efforts

UPGRADE USERS WORLDWIDE

National Government ministries and national-scope NGOs that are ready to join the Convention and curate national campaigns should email: . They can review the Memorandum of Understanding and a briefing sheet about campaign curator benefits.

National campaign curators assemble stakeholders from business, government and NGO sectors and review our deployment resources page to organize their campaigns.

Review our deployment resources page for materials and strategy ideas for your campaign. APWG can supply a campaign website, ready to deploy under your national ccTLD.

Please contact the Messaging Convention at Awareness Engineering program.

Today, the Messaging Convention’s national-deployment campaign partners stretch from Geneva to Kyoto, with full deployments already established in a number of nations, including: The Federal Republic of Nigeria, France, Poland, Ireland, Japan, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the USA, Spain and Japan.

Meanwhile, dozens of national ministries and national-scope NGOs are inspecting the Convention’s national partner agreement, in order to launch their countries’ own national STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaigns.

A Short Institutional History

In Spring, 2009 APWG Secretary General Peter Cassidy, in collaboration with APWG Senior Research Fellow and APWG.EU Trustee Aimee Larsen-Kirkpatrick, authored a program prospectus called Optimizing Counter-eCrime Consumer Education Through Unified Online Safety Messaging, calling for the development of a unified messaging scheme that would be shared by industry and government agencies, enhancing resonance and retention and reducing conflicting messaging.

The APWG circulated the program prospectus among its members who had advocated APWG activism in addressing consumer cybersecurity awareness and education, as well its sponsoring members, steering committee and the APWG cybercrime researcher community while NCSA reached out to government and commercial stakeholders from its sponsors.

The first muster of the Messaging Convention called by APWG in July 2009 at APWG member Fox Interactive Media in Beverly Hills, almost immediately catalyzed the group and its sense of mission. Striking was the fact that with personnel from around 20 companies, the delegates agreed on the core principles for the message identified by afternoon session. A consensus was struck that the work proposed – develop and deploy a common cybersecurity awareness suite – was a reasonable and vital proposal, and that it should continue to completion and deployed.

This coalition of industry, government and non-profits – the ad hoc Online Consumer Security and Safety Messaging Convention – now incorporated as a non-profit corporation as the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ Messaging Convention, Inc. – embarked upon an intensive collaborative effort to develop a messaging suite that would be deployed universally by the public and private sectors, creating resonanance with the general public enhancing the messages’ retention required to ultimately change behavior toward safer online habits.

On October 4, 2010, the United State Department of Homeland Secuity Launched the first national STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign, establishing STOP. THINK. CONNECT. as the cybersecurity awareness program for the federal government of the United States of America. Since then, scores of cabinet-level government ministries, national scale NGOs and the Organization of American States have entered into memorandums of cooperation with the Messaging Convention and, to date, 24 have officially launched their own national campaigns.

Each and every instantiation of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ cybersecurity awareness message assets strengthens the resonance of the global campaign. Dozens of national curator genesis teams are evaluating the campaign’s memorandum of cooperation. The Messaging Convention believes its unified messaging archecture will provide maximal coverage and drive the campaign toward ubiquitous, global deployment.

The STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention, Inc. has been determined by the United States IRS to be a public charity, tax-exempted under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions and many kinds of bequests are fully tax deductible.