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."