City of London Police hosted an international conference on Combating Financial and Cyber Threats Affecting Global Financial Centres.
From New York, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr, delivered the opening address. He and City of London Police Commissioner Adrian Leppard, and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) announced the formation of the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), an international, cross-sector effort to address malicious cyber activity.
Vance said: “A crime prevented is far better than a crime prosecuted. But when information about a cyber threat or attack is not divulged, other institutions – and perhaps entire industries – remain vulnerable. Serving as a voluntary clearinghouse, the Global Cyber Alliance will share and disseminate this kind of crucial information across sectors in real time. Currently, the cyber landscape is dotted with entities that are either for-profit or divided by region or industry. The Global Cyber Alliance has no such restrictions or limitations, crossing borders and sectors in an effort to map, understand, and thwart cybercrime, with no profit motive attached, and no goal other than the prevention of future crimes. Today, we are inaugurating a new, better, international approach to fighting this global problem.”
Adrian Leppard said: “Protection from cyber attacks is a huge challenge for businesses and organisations across the globe. The threat doesn’t respect national borders or legal jurisdictions and the solution to the challenge should recognise this.”
The Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation, will be based in New York City and London as two leading financial centres. The Alliance says that it will not collect any Personal Identifiable Information, and will only possess what is voluntarily provided – data that describes or identifies the attackers’ information, such as location or infrastructure, and the threats associated. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has committed $25 million in criminal asset forfeiture proceeds to fund this – an initial $15 million over the first three years with $10 million to follow. The Alliance will seek more funding from members and partners. The City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance is acting as the technical assistance consultant.
