Enterprises need to share information about threats and attacks with one another, says Paul Dorey, founder and director of CSO Confidential.
"Just imagine I gave you the opportunity to know that someone was going to attack you and potentially how they were going to do it. I guess you'd want to know that."
He says there's been a breakthrough in sharing information about threats. "What we're seeing is unexpected and unprecedented levels of sharing starting to happen between companies and organisations in order to address [cyber crime]."
Dorey says financial institutions are creating small communities of trust and sharing to help prevent serious attacks on their infrastructure. There is also an increase in sharing groups in the oil and gas, and electricity industries, he adds.
According to Dorey, the best way to share information with other companies is to start small, because that's how to build trust.
"I have three recommendations. The first one is to buy an intelligence service, the sort of one that will detect open source information about you. The second is to be part of a small group. Someone you can look in the eye, that's how you develop trust. It's very hard to do that over e-mail.
“And, finally, also be part of a bigger group. Something like one of the groups the governments may set up, where you can see the bigger picture that's going on. It doesn't replace the smaller group. The companies that have been really successful seem to have this three-tiered approach," he says.
There are some concerns about information being leaked, he admits. However, he says he attended a group recently, and there was a rallying cry of not caring that information was leaked, but being faster and smarter than criminals because of sharing.
"That's a bit of a bold statement. You've got to be careful and cautious, but at some point, when we deal with a threat, we have to let others know."
Sharing information is inevitable, and doing so early could help prevent companies from taking too much damage. "The bad guys taught us a few lessons. They don't have any trouble at all sharing, do they?"
Share
