National Council of ISACs Members Lead ISAO Standards Working Groups
The Information Sharing and Analysis Organization Standards Organization (ISAO SO) announced on January 15 the volunteers it selected to serve as chairs for the six initial Standards Working Groups. Among the chosen working group chairs are leaders and members of the National Council of ISACs (NCI).
Denise Anderson, President of the National Heath ISAC, is Chair, ISAO Capabilities Working Group. Vice Chair is Fred Hintermister, Manager, Cross Sector, at Electricity ISAC. Anderson and Hintermister are Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, of the National Council of ISACs. Leading the working group on ISAO Support is Carlos Kizzee, Executive Director of the Defense Security Information Exchange, which is also affiliated with the NCI. In addition, several leaders of the nation’s ISACs are supporting the ISAO standards development effort as working group members. The other four working groups are: ISAO Creation, Information Sharing, Privacy and Security and Government Relations, all led by experts in their respective fields.
“The ISAC community has many years of experience as pioneers in private sector information sharing,” says Anderson. “The National Council of ISACs is dedicated to supporting information sharing within sectors and on a cross-sector basis, and we are excited to play such a vital role helping to develop ISAO best practices.”
The ISAO SO was established late last year under the February 2015 White House Executive Order on Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing. Its purpose is to work with stakeholders to identify a common set of voluntary standards for the creation and functioning of ISAOs, which are intended to improve the Nation’s cybersecurity posture and resiliency by deepening and broadening the timely exchange of cybersecurity threat and incident response information.
Formed in 2003, the NCI today comprises 24 Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) and other organizations recognized within their respective sectors as primary information sharing and operational arms. ISACs help critical infrastructure owners and operators protect their facilities, personnel, and customers from cyber and physical security threats and other hazards. ISACs collect, analyze, and disseminate actionable threat information to their members and provide members with tools to mitigate risks and enhance resiliency. The first ISAC was established in 1999 and many ISACs have been operating for more than 10 years.
For more information about the ISAO SO’s work, visit www.isao.org.
Thanks for this clear rundown of how council members are shaping the ISAO standards work. Cross-sector coordination only holds up when everyone shares the same baseline practices, and voluntary standards give smaller organizations a realistic path to participate.
We see the same principle in security awareness training: short, repeatable exercises build far more muscle memory than one long annual briefing. A quick 2 minute drill game is often enough to keep response habits sharp between formal reviews. Appreciate the write-up.
Useful update on the ISAO standards working groups — cross-sector coordination on threat intel really does matter. I have been building a small browser tool for deliberately degrading images, which is handy when checking how thumbnails and previews hold up: low quality meme maker. Curious whether others here find that kind of quick QA useful.
Great overview of the coordination behind the ISAO standards work. Shared baselines like these are what make cross-sector information sharing usable day to day, instead of every team re-translating the same terms. We run operational data pipelines at wave rider and see the same pattern: common definitions upstream save an enormous amount of work when people are responding under pressure. Thanks for documenting how the working groups are structured.
Thanks for highlighting this important work. Standards-driven information sharing really does strengthen resilience across sectors, and it is encouraging to see this level of coordination. We have been following similar developments in security operations tooling at trackdash.org.
Great article! It's fantastic to see the National Council of ISACs taking a leadership role in the ISAO Standards Working Groups. Standardized protocols and robust information sharing are vital for building a resilient, comprehensive security posture across any organization.
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Thanks for sharing these important updates!