Cyber Alliances: Collective Defense Becomes Central To Securing Networks, Data (From Forbes)

When the recent NATO summit in Wales concluded, the alliance issued a communique that, among other things, stated “cyber defence is part of NATO’s core task of collective defence.”  Judging from recent moves by America’s biggest cybersecurity firms, though, collective defense is a concept that has salience far beyond the military.  McAfee, Symantec and two other cybersecurity houses have established a Cyber Threat Alliance to pool threat information and insights relevant to defeating sophisticated on-line criminals.  This is a distinct departure from past practice, in which companies jealously guarded knowledge about threats for fear of losing their competitive edge.  Now, some of the biggest corporate players seem to be saying collective defense is the only feasible way to cope with the alarming rise in attacks on U.S. networks and data repositories.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.