Global Resilience Federation Launched to Coordinate Cross-Sector Information Sharing for ISACs, ISAOs, CERTs and other Communities

GRF's mission is to help assure the resilience and continuity of vital infrastructure and individual organizations against threats and acts that could significantly impact individual organizations and various sectors' ability to provide services critical to the orderly functioning of the global economy.

The need for cross-sector intelligence sharing is increasing as malicious actors become more sophisticated and often target multiple industries simultaneously. The Global Resilience Federation will create new efficiencies and intelligence that can be used both within and across sectors. GRF is an evolution of the work started by the Sector Services division of FS-ISAC, which helped establish information sharing communities including EASE and LS-ISAO. The GRF team leverages 18 years of information sharing expertise while expanding on the Sector Services mission to support the creation, operation, and growth of information sharing communities of interest and to provide a foundation for sophisticated cross-sector sharing and collaboration.

"The time is right to launch the GRF community of communities," said Bill Nelson, president and CEO, FS-ISAC and chairman of the board, GRF. "With the cross-pollination and wide-range of intelligence sources we deal with every day, across many industries, it makes sense that FS-ISAC no longer coordinate intelligence for all our partner organizations, but instead pass the torch to GRF and then join the community as one member among many."

FS-ISAC and its partner communities LS-ISAO and EASE will join as charter members of GRF, which will become the hub of continuous cross-sector intelligence coordination among the communities. Current FS-ISAC support for other industries, including ISAO and ISAC creation services, will also transition seamlessly from Sector Services to GRF. Through a formal partnership, GRF will leverage FS-ISAC infrastructure and will incorporate the FS-ISAC Sector Services team as its initial staff. Cindy Donaldson, formerly chief operating officer of Sector Services, FS-ISAC, will lead the company in her newly appointed role as president of GRF.

"GRF is an opportunity for true cross-sector sharing among communities around the world.  GRF will help build new sharing communities for industries that need them, and connect new and mature communities into a trusted network for mutual defense. In addition, GRF will provide industry-specific intelligence for member sectors. We're creating a 'neighborhood watch of neighborhood watches,' because we need to work together to strengthen the overall resilience of vital sectors," said Donaldson.

"The cross-sector reporting we have seen through membership in LS-ISAO will become even more important for the security of our organization as threat actors increasingly target many industries at once," said Matt Kesner, member of the Executive Committee, LS-ISAO, and chief information officer, Fenwick & West LLP. "We look forward to being part of GRF as it takes a premier role in the coordination of intelligence among sharing communities."

GRF will have two types of membership: members and supported partner communities.  Members will have a seat on the board of directors, access to bi-monthly reports that analyze and investigate the latest threats and trends, and inclusion on an emergency crisis notification committee. Partner communities will have those benefits as well as services that can include a dedicated analyst, alerts and reporting on indicators of compromise, systems vulnerabilities, physical security and geopolitical alerts, and other community benefits related to administration, operations, recruitment and legal counsel. Offerings will be rolled out in a phased approach as new communities join.

"With the creation of EASE, we complemented our sources of intelligence and expanded our security footprint. We have already seen cross-sector sharing through that membership and are excited to see the growth of multi-industry cooperation through the Global Resilience Federation," said Steve Brown, member of the Executive Committee, EASE and vice president and chief security officer, Xcel Energy.

About GRF
Additional information on Global Resilience Federation may be found at grfederation.org

About FS-ISAC
The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, formed in 1999, is a member-owned, non-profit and private financial sector initiative. With 7,000 members worldwide today, FS-ISAC was designed and developed by its member institutions. Its primary function is to share timely, relevant and actionable physical and cyber security threat and incident information to enhance the ability of the financial services sector to prepare for, respond to and mitigate the risk associated with these threats. Constantly gathering reliable and timely information between its members, and from financial services providers, commercial security firms, government agencies, law enforcement and other trusted resources, FS-ISAC is uniquely positioned to quickly disseminate physical and cyber threat alerts and other critical information. This information includes analysis and recommended solutions from leading industry experts. Visit fsisac.com for additional information.

GRF Contact: Patrick McGlone
[email protected] 
703.972.0107

FS-ISAC Contact: Andrew Hoerner
[email protected] 
650.208.4040

SOURCE FS-ISAC

Related Links

http://www.fsisac.com