Written by Joe Chen, Engineering, Security Technologies & All Endpoint Solutions, Broadcom Inc.
After learning that Jeannette Jarvis and Michael Daniel wanted me to contribute a blog to the CTA site, I was excited to help. When CTA started, our goal was simple, to collaborate across the industry and share threat intelligence for the greater good. Now sharing happens automatically among our 26 members. This sharing is especially important right now.
Doing Our Part
While healthcare workers work together to defend the public from COVID-19, many industries are helping. A leading hockey equipment producer shared its schematics of hockey masks capable of stopping high velocity pucks so its industry peers could join in mass production of masks for doctors and nurses. Our industry shares the same spirit. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the value of sharing and collaboration in our industry has amplified. Vendors across the industry have had to step up their joint effort, but as members of CTA, it was simple to jump right into collaborating. Members work collectively combating the bad guys. None of us want healthcare workers to have inboxes full of phishing messages or their critical infrastructures stressed or compromised by ransomware.
Rising to Meet the Moment
Members have shared around 20 COVID-related targeted research publications as a part of CTA’s early sharing initiative. Members also reviewed and prepared defenses in real time to help protect their customers. At Symantec, we have shared all of our COVID-19 research and threat intelligence, as well as offering resources to help secure the newly remote workforce. We also aim to provide validation to help enrich our collective intelligence and to provide guardrails against false positives.
We’ve learned that there is always room for improvement; we can always be better. Having access to additional intelligence always helps further protect our customers and our customers’ customers. These are our families, friends, and neighbors. We share with fellow peers in our industry because it benefits everyone. CTA’s automated sharing platform enables us all to move forward from talking about cyber threat intelligence sharing to actually doing this work. We are proud to be part of something that’s real and a force for good.