NIPC
& THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INFORMATION SHARING AND
ANALYSIS CENTER AGREE TO SHARE SECURITY THREAT INFORMATION
In
an effort to enhance the security and readiness of the
country's financial services industries to deal with
potential terrorist threats, Mr. Stanley (Stash) R.
Jarocki, Chairman, Financial Services Information Sharing
and Analysis Center, LLC (FS/ISAC) and Vice President,
Information Security Operations for Morgan Stanley,
signed an agreement with Ronald L. Dick, the National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) Director and
Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism
Division, in support of a partnership between the federal
government and the Financial Services Information Sharing
and Analysis Center (ISAC). This partnership between
the FS-ISAC and the NIPC will allow vital security-related
information to move more effectively between the multi-agency
NIPC, based at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, and
financial services associations.
The
FS/ISAC is a private partnership of major banks, brokerages,
insurance companies, and utilities managed by a Board
of Managers elected by the FS/ISAC membership. The FS/ISAC
web site is at http://www.fsisac.com. The FS/ISAC allows
the nation's leading experts in the financial services
sector to share and assess threat intelligence provided
by its membership and the NIPC and to then assist the
NIPC in preparing warnings of threats against financial
services infrastructure. The nation's financial service
companies will have a fast and reliable means through
the NIPC to pass and receive incident information to
and from national level agencies responsible for looking
for patterns that may indicate an organized attack is
in preparation or underway or a serious vulnerability
that can impact the sector exists.
Sharing
information between industry and government can prove
the critical difference in preventing or recovering
quickly from attacks. Our country's financial services
companies are critical to fostering a healthy national
economy," said Ron Dick, Director of the NIPC.
Mr. Dick added, "We must be able to give them early
warnings so they can take actions to minimize or avert
potential loss and keep the economic underpinning of
our nation working effectively. Advance knowledge of
the target or type of attack can make a vital difference
to help the industry help itself. Alternatively, information
provided by a financial services entity to the NIPC
may be the key piece of information to alert us to terrorist
activity."
"The
understanding we sign today recognizes the necessity
for a robust and timely exchange of essential information
about threats and attacks on the financial services
infrastructure," according to Mr. Jarocki. "It
is most appropriate that the FS ISAC enter into this
agreement with NIPC for a two-way trusted exchange of
information in order to analyze and disseminate actionable
intelligence on threats, attacks, vulnerabilities, anomalies,
and security best practices involving the banking and
finance sector."
