children there is a need for the educational field to
continuously renew and anticipate developments. The
agreed revision of the curriculum (where digital literacy
is one of the themes) is being pushed forward together
with teachers, pupils and parents, educational
institutions and the professional field. This revision of
the curriculum will become law from 2019 onward.
There is still a need for current generations to catch up.
Research10 has revealed that citizens and businesses are
still not sufficiently aware of the dangers of digital
activities and the measures that they can implement to
avoid becoming a victim in the digital domain. In recent
years the business community and the government have
already invested heavily in the awareness of the general
public and smaller businesses to digital threats and
perspectives for action have been offered, amongst
others through veiliginternetten.nl and Alert Online but
also through campaigns such as
maakhetzeniettemakkelijk.nl (‘boefproof’) [don’t make it
easy for them (‘crook proof’] or veiligbankieren.nl (‘hang op,
klik weg’) [safebanking.nl. (hang up, click away]. The
effects of these various efforts can be improved by more
public-private cooperation and by introducing cohesion
into communications campaigns in the public domain.
This also applies to the efforts by employers to make
their employees digitally skilled and keep them up-todate. When doing so, there is a need to develop a guide
containing basic security measures for both citizens and
smaller businesses. This set of security measures does
not protect against all conceivable digital threats but is
an important step that citizens and small businesses can
take to further develop their digital skills.
OBJECTIVES
• The Netherlands conducts high-quality cybersecurity
research.
• The Netherlands has a long-term knowledge
development programme under which the academic
community develops and improves high-quality
knowledge, and there are sufficient academics
available to acquire an independent knowledge
position in the area of cybersecurity.
• Citizens and businesses are able to see the
importance of addressing digital threats and become
more resilient to cybercrime.
MEASURES
o The Netherlands will invest structurally in
fundamental and applied cybersecurity research. This
will take the form of a multi-year public-private
approach, as a boost for high quality cybersecurity
knowledge development. The way in which various
initiatives, programmes and instruments relating to
cybersecurity research can be better aligned with each
other will be investigated to this end. The
Verhoeven/Rutte11 motion will be included in this. In
anticipation of this investigation, a financial incentive
for cybersecurity research will be organised first.
o Digital skills, including media-literacy and
cybersecurity are explicit focus areas in the integral
review of the primary and secondary education
curriculum. Proposals for this will be developed in
2018 and will be evolved into laws and regulations
from 2019 onwards. Schools will be supported by
Knowledge Net [Kennisnet] (which is funded by the
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) in
anticipation of this.
o The government encourages the business community
and civil society organisations to further develop the
digital skills of employees and citizens and ensures
the continuity and cohesion between various
awareness campaigns to increase their effect. When
doing so, the latest insight in behavioural sciences wil
be taken into account.
10 National Cybersecurity Awareness study 2017 [Nationaal cybersecurity bewustzijnsonderzoek 2017], Alert Online and HM Government et. al. A call to action: The Cyber
Aware perception gap, 2018.
11 The Verhoeven/Rutte motion asks the government to explore the possibility of setting up an institute for research in the field of cybersecurity (Parliamentary Papers II,
2017/18, 34 775 VI, No. 68).
40 | National Cyber Security Agenda A cyber secure Netherlands