The chartered accountants’ body ICAEW has joined a partnership that brings business and government together to share cyber threat and vulnerability information. It is the first accountancy body to become a member of the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP).
The partnership is for members to engage with industry and government in a secure way and gain early warning of potential cyber threats. Members can pool knowledge without exposing sensitivities and market information.
CiSP has a joint industry and government ‘Fusion Cell’ which collates information, joining the dots and alerting members to potential breaches and threats.
As a partner ICAEW can act as a sponsor for members of ICAEW (firms and individuals) to join CiSP. The institute says flow of information on potential situational cyber threats will reduce the impact on, and further increase trust in, UK businesses.
Richard Anning, Head of IT Faculty at ICAEW, said:
“Cyber-security has been moving up the risk register in organisations of all sizes – even SMEs are starting to realise the threats. We have been working with government to highlight the issues concerning cyber-security amongst our members as well as the wider public. The Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership provides an ideal trusted forum in which to share cyber incidents, learn from each other, improve the security of all our organisations and make the UK a safer place to do business”.
And Chris Gibson, Director of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK)at the Cabinet Office hoped that ICAEW members follow. “CiSP continues to grow at pace, giving members access to a substantial forum of technical information and advice as provided by industry and government experts, raising their awareness and ability to mitigate against cyber threats.”
CiSP is funded by the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) as part of the government’s Cyber Security Strategy.
