7. Marketing a cybersecurity Awareness Solution in LPA Contexts

We discuss marketing CS-AWARE in the public sector using Italy as a case study. It is explained that the public sector is complicated, and heterogeneous in size, policies, degree of autonomy and cooperation. Most municipalities in Italy are quite small. Of the 7958 municipalities in Italy over 5541 have less than 5000 inhabitants. The average population of Italian municipalities is 7614. A common factor for many municipalities has been declining budgets, inadequate staffing levels, an aging work force, and increased demand for social services. Municipal officials in smaller municipalities typically lack the relevant knowledge to manage cybersecurity solutions, and a further complication there is often no explicit security policy. We look at the need for a good content strategy in developing marketing campaigns for cybersecurity solutions. Developing and maintaining good relationships and credibility are critical in the context of the Italian market for any eventual campaign among municipalities. Despite the trend towards pan-European markets, the Italian market is still characterised by reliance on personal contacts and networks developed internally. Various tactics for developing and evaluating marketing campaigns are reviewed. For many municipal leaders it is the socio-technical approach to cybersecurity awareness that appeals the most. This type of approach, we note, allows local government officials to understand better their organization's needs and how they might meet better their essential mission of service delivery for their communities. Combining the collaborative nature of the CS-AWARE approach with effective, well developed content dissemination will be, we suggest, the key to promoting an eventual cybersecurity campaign.