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Role of an ISAO in Information Sharing
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What is an ISAO?
- Cyber Threat Intelligence
Posted on: August 22, 2018
The cybersecurity landscape changed with the introduction of Information Sharing and Analysis Centers, or ISACs, in the United States in 1998. This type of cybersecurity sharing was put in place to address critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and help protect from cyber threats by sharing actionable threat intel among trusted organizations within an industry and even between sectors. In 2015, ISACs received a boost, thanks to an executive order that established the ISAO.
Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) were set up after President Barack Obama signed an executive order passing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. An ISAO adopts an ISAC’s collaborative approach to cybersecurity information sharing. The section 3 of Executive Order 13691 defines ISAOs as non-governmental organizations selected through an open and competitive process that engages with existing information sharing organizations, owners and operators of critical infrastructure, relevant agencies, and other public and private sector stakeholders to develop a set of voluntary standards and guidelines for the creation and functioning of ISAOs.
Role of an ISAO in Information Sharing
The primary role of an ISAC and an ISAO is to allow an organization to safely analyze and share sensitive information about cybersecurity threat, risks, and incidents. In the case of ISACs, the information is shared only with the members of the critical infrastructure industry. However, information sharing across other industries occurs through ISAOs, thereby expanding the reach of the threat analysis organization. ISAOs can also customize the specific communication needs by offering a more flexible approach to self-organized information sharing activity amongst communities of interest, such as small businesses across sectors—legal, accounting, and consulting firms that support cross-sector clients, etc.
The cybersecurity intelligence data shared by both ISACs and ISAOs is relevant, real time and context-driven. Through extensive collaboration, this data is shared rapidly and regularly, which in turn, can be critical in helping an organization protect itself from cyber threats.
Although ISAOs can be structured to support the industry-based, location-based, and other special interests of its members, it essentially embodies the same concept that ISACs do - “Security Matters.” The creation of both ISACs and ISAOs highlights the importance of collaborative efforts and cybersecurity intelligence sharing in improving the security posture of individual organizations and America as a whole. In fact, the ability of organizations to share and receive actionable threat information with peers in pursuit of the protection of their own networks offers an inherent and intrinsic benefit of participating in ISACs and ISAOs. As information sharing deepens, real-time awareness of cyber threat information allows participating organizations to share learnings and effectively implement mitigation strategies thereby reducing the frequency and impact of cyber attacks.
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