14 DAY TRIAL // CISA's new director, Jen Easterly, asked the security industry to partner with the federal government to preemptively prevent and fend off the recent uptick in cyberattacks against US institutions and agencies, according to Dark Reading.
Easterly invited security companies to work with the agency in a pre-recorded virtual keynote that was broadcast today at Black Hat USA on large video screens at Mandalay Bay Convention Center. She believes a common situational awareness of the threat environment is needed to create a national cyber defense plan that can be translated into concrete operational concepts.
Additionally, CISA's director further explains that combating ransomware and creating a framework to handle cloud-based service provider cyber incidents are among the Joint Cyber Defense Center's first goals. The newly created JCDC include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Cyber Command, the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
JCDC wants to improve the country's cybersecurity
JCDC expects the industries agencies of energy, transportation, the EPA, and the FDA to become members once it is fully operational. Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Verizon, Lumen, Google Cloud, FireEye, CrowdStrike, AT &T, and Amazon Web Services are among the private sector companies involved in the cooperative cybersecurity effort.
The members of the JCDC will be able to better coordinate defense strategies for local, state, and federal government agencies as well as the private sector. They will also be able to conduct joint cyber defense exercises for the benefit of all, according to CISA.
The initiative is well received in the private sector. Cameron Camp, a security researcher at ESET, says that to coordinate effectively, federal institutions must be able to communicate with one other. Ransomware is extremely difficult to stop, so combating it will be a difficult task despite the combined efforts of industry and government. Moreover, Microsoft's corporate vice president of customer security and trust, Tom Burt, believes that teamwork is a key factor in security, and if the government and industry work together, then they can strengthen he defense against cyberattacks.