The Global Forum to Advance Cyber Resilience Holds Inaugural Meeting at the Kogod Cybersecurity Governance Center, February 18, 2016
NASA/Kennedy Space Center, FL (PRWEB) February 25, 2016 -- Critical infrastructure, government and academic leaders convened on February 18 in Washington, DC at the Kogod Cybersecurity Governance Center at American University for the inaugural meeting of the Global Forum to Advance Cyber Resilience.
Responding to a call-to-action to strengthen critical infrastructure cyber resilience, the Forum represents a trusted international collaborative partnership leading the advancement of operationalizing critical infrastructure cyber resilience through open dialogue, critical insight, thought exchange and collaborative innovation. Attendees included the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal agencies, academia, representatives from critical infrastructure sectors, and security and IT service management expert organizations.
Facilitated by the Global Institute for Cybersecurity + Research, the Forum’s goals are strategically focused on providing a “disciplined approach” to operationalize the delivery of cyber resilience “mission-driven” services through the integration of service management and cyber resilience; contributing with a defining voice to the evolution of best practice, standards and frameworks amidst the constantly changing and expanding cyber ecosystem; and enabling organizations to more easily adapt best practices for governance, compliance, controls and education.
To deliver on these goals, via the identification, adoption and adaption of best practices and lessons learned to optimize investment in people, process and technology, the Forum is developing organizational, sector and sub-sector specific operational guidance that integrates cyber resilience into the entire IT Service Management (ITSM) lifecycle, supported by a common lexicon, security controls guidance, and workforce roles and responsibilities. Private industry and government (taxpayer investments) in the following best practices, frameworks and standards are being leveraged in collaboration with the U.S. Dept. of Defense, NIST, and private-sector organizations.
- The Department of Defense Enterprise Service Management Framework (DESMF)
- NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity
- NIST National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework
- Future NIST Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems
- IT Service Management (ITSM) and RESILIA
- Proven Best Practices, Standards and Lessons Learned
Deborah Kobza, President/CEO of the Global Institute for Cybersecurity, and Co-Chair of the Forum said, “We have a historic opportunity to leverage bringing together increasingly connected and globally trusted public and private sector leaders to operationalize cyber resilience. The Forum’s strategic focus to take standards, Frameworks, best practices and lessons learned to the next level via sector and sector-specific operational guidance and workforce education will greatly contribute to global critical infrastructure sustainable resilience."
Charlie Tupitza, Forum Co-Chair said, “Technology is important, but we also need to focus on people and on how we can recover quickly from incidents that will occur while minimizing their effect. This includes cyber attacks and all types of incidents getting in the way of the organization to perform its mission. The Global Forum provides a sustainable platform to bring together experts from the public and private sectors to work together to define and implement solutions focused on using cyber resilience to enable their mission and services.”
“The Kogod Cybersecurity Governance Center (CGC) is focused on assisting corporate executives and board members with critical action plans to prevent and respond to cyber attacks,” said Executive Director, William Delone. “The Global Forum to Advance Cyber Resilience provides a unique opportunity to bring together top experts to work together finding solutions, representing a marketplace of ideas, partnerships and resources."
Ernest McDuffie, Ph.D. from the Global McDuffie Group commented, “Cyber Resilience is at the cutting edge of future trends in cybersecurity. The Forum is well positioned, after this inaugural event, to leverage national and international talent and interest to address this important component.”
"To assure cyber resilience, everyone must have a seat at the table. Forums, like this, help bring together thought leaders to focus attention on the potential challenges we face in our industries.” Fred Hintermister, Manager, Cross Sector, North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center and vice chair, National Council of ISACs.
The Cyber Security industry has an important perspective. “We offer affordable insurance to organizations that do the right things to minimize the effect of cyber-attacks. Technical protections are important, but they are not foolproof. Resilience includes having trained people to identify, limit and recover from incidents. The Forum to advance Cyber Resilience is bringing a critical mix of government and private sector resources to align standards and prioritize spending to get the greatest impact in limiting cyber risk.” Said Christopher Keegan Senior Managing Director, Cyber & Technology National Practice Leader for Beecher Carlson.
“We see this type of collaboration between public and private-sector leaders as an imperative in today’s dangerous and constantly shifting cyber environment,” said John Honeycutt, CTO of Discovery Communications. “Today’s meeting started an important dialogue between key players. The new Forum provides an ongoing platform to exchange ideas and develop action plans – not only for the companies and government organizations already well-versed in best practices to combat cyber attacks, but for those still learning the size and scope of the daily cyber threats we all face.”
Upcoming Global Forum regional sessions will be announced to engage international public and private sector leaders.
For additional information, please link to http://www.gicsr.org/gfacr/, or contact either of the Global Forum Co-Chairs:
Deborah Kobza, Deborah.Kobza(at)gicsr.org, or Charlie Tupitza, Charlie.Tupitza(at)gicsr.org
Rich Mullikin, Mullikin Communications, +1 (925) 354-7444, [email protected]
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