Come together, right now

It was just two weeks ago when my blog offered a cautionary tale about the Verkada security breach and stressed the importance of making the necessary investment to prevent cyberattacks like that from happening to other businesses.

Fast forward to today, and while I have no idea if my blog ignited a spark, I have been extremely pleased by the overwhelming response of the security industry recently in the battle against cyber threats.

Let’s start with the first collaboration announced this month, as leading global security industry organizations ASIS International, the Electronic Security Association (ESA), The Monitoring Association (TMA), PSA Security Network and the Security Industry Association (SIA) formed a coalition with a unified strategy to increase cyber readiness. 

“As representatives of the security practitioners and security solutions providers responsible for protecting people and assets around the globe, we share a unified vision to continuously strengthen cyber readiness practices by all stakeholders within the security ecosystem,” the coalition said in its announcement. “We realize that even with the best device hardening, tools and technology, the risk of cyberattack is never zero. Building a community of partnership and trust among the industry and its many stakeholders helps us share information and learn about the evolving threat landscape so we can be better prepared and learn from common challenges.”

This collaborative effort among these leading security organizations, which will also include essential virtual and in-person educational conferences, training and workshops, can only be seen as a positive, especially in light of the SolarWinds, Verkada, and most recently, the MolsonCoors data breaches that have had devastating consequences for the companies themselves and their customer base.

The response to the formation of this coalition has been nothing short of fantastic, with the PSA Security Network saying, “We’re honored to be a part of the coalition!” Kasia Hanson, recently named the new chair of the SIA Women in Security Forum, exclaimed, “This is great to see!” Elizabeth Parks, Parks Associates President, added, “Bravo! The more collaboration the better.”

Another collaborative effort in the war against cyber threats was announced this month as the ESA, ASIS International and SIA announced a Memorandum of Understanding with The InfraGard National Members Alliance (INMA) in support of the InfraGard Electronic Security Industry Cross Sector Council (ESI-CSC), which focuses on enhanced knowledge sharing across the full spectrum of critical infrastructure supply chain businesses that the electronic security industry professionals service on a constant basis.

In announcing the collaboration, INMA was “excited to welcome patriotic electronic security industry professionals to assist the ESI-CSC in achieving its goals, furthering the InfraGard mission of protecting our nation's critical infrastructure.”

Integrated Security Technologies Co-Founder Andrew Lanning, who is also chairman of the InfraGard ESI-CSC, noted, “The security industry has a unique opportunity to collaborate with our national security partner agencies in an effort to identify acute vulnerabilities and bolster resilience across the spectrum of supply chain clients that we service on a daily basis. Our federal partners simply don’t have the relationships, or the resources to engage with the entirety of the supply chains across all 16 sectors. Fortunately, our industry is already working with all of these companies and has the relationships to add value to the national supply chain security effort.”

Another example of coming together for the benefit of cybersecurity is the recent formation of the GlobalCyberConsortium (GCC), co-founded by David Bunzel, Founder/Executive Director of the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance, and Min Kyriannis, Managing Director of JMK Group.

Kyriannis told Security Systems News that the consortium was formed “to simplify, streamline, and improve on cybersecurity questionnaires. Security professionals from leading building system manufacturers, domain experts, and academics have teamed up to provide a broad and balanced perspective.” More details on the GCC will be featured in an upcoming issue. 

Coalition. Collaboration. Consortium. Coming together for a common cause. With all of these various entities working collectively, we have the security industry’s version of the Justice League. Our incarnation of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and the Flash is the organizations that are joining forces to fight the war against cyberattacks, a war we simply cannot lose.