The National Security Agency (NSA) recently launched its Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (CCC) to proactively help private companies and federal partners fight off advanced cyber adversaries at no cost. Judging by the enthusiastic response so far, CCC’s services are poised to be in high demand.
Through the CCC, the NSA shares its extensive knowledge, threat intelligence, and advanced cybersecurity capabilities directly with organizations across technology, energy, finance, and more sectors. Services include threat analysis reports, guidance on mitigating active threats, insights into nation-state hacking groups, and even direct assistance from the NSA's top cybersecurity experts during active intrusions or incident response.
The CCC services are available free of charge to any eligible organization, regardless of size, resources, or prior NSA ties. This allows even small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to access cybersecurity expertise and defensive knowledge typically reserved for national security and law enforcement operations. The pressures facing SMBs keep mounting.
"This capability is not available anywhere else in the world," said Morgan Adamski, Director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. "We are bringing all the NSA's cybersecurity talent together to share our knowledge and better enable our partners to defend their networks."
While the CCC is still in its infancy, major technology companies, critical infrastructure providers, and financial institutions are already partnering with the NSA team. Popular services include receiving actionable intelligence on threats targeting their systems and leveraging the NSA's leading malware reverse-engineering skills to remove cyber threats after breaches.
A December 2023 National Security Agency/Central Security Service press release examined the agency's 2023 Year in Review report, which looked back at its successes in 2023. Among its wins, the report cited "Increased enrollments in NSA's no-cost cybersecurity services to Department of Defense contractors by 400%, hardening infrastructure and strengthening the Defense Industrial Base."
Some cybersecurity experts have expressed skepticism about allowing NSA operatives deep inside private networks, citing longstanding concerns about privacy and civil liberties. The NSA insists it has implemented robust vetting and access procedures to protect confidentiality. If successful, the pioneering Cybersecurity Collaboration Center could usher in a new era of public-private cybersecurity cooperation. And with proactive NSA support now just a call away, businesses may finally have a fighting chance against even the most formidable threat actors.
Some additional insights from a 15 May 2024 press release about the CCC's success include:
To date, more than 1,000 industry partners have signed up for CCC services. These companies have broad and deep reach, ranging from major service providers that can harden billions of endpoints to small businesses that provide critical components to the nation’s most sensitive systems.
Small businesses make up the majority (70%) of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) supply chain. These small businesses have access to sensitive Department of Defense (DoD) information but often lack the technical expertise or other resources to defend their networks against a sophisticated nation-state threat, according to Bailey Bickley, NSA's DIB Defense Chief.
"These companies are an attractive target for our adversaries seeking to steal US intellectual property to build their military capabilities and economies," Bickley said. "We don't expect small businesses to defend against nation-state threats alone. It's in NSA's and DoD's best interests to help."
- The NSA also benefits from receiving DNS data that the CCC can run custom analytics on to better understand how nation-state actors are targeting the DIB and then defend against them.
- According to statistics compiled by the Cybersecurity Directorate's DNS provider, the service processes 70 million DNS queries a day and has blocked billions of malicious queries to date, including ransomware activity and known nation-state spear phishing, malware, and botnets.
Companies with active DoD contracts are encouraged to learn about the CCC and enroll in NSA's DIB Cybersecurity services. If interested businesses can get started by filling out a Cybersecurity Services Contact Form:
https://www.nsa.gov/About/Cybersecurity-Collaboration-Center/Customer-Contact-Form/
This article is presented at no charge for educational and informational purposes only.
Red Sky Alliance is a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence Service organization. Our services can help detect cyber threats and vulnerabilities. For questions, comments, or assistance, please get in touch with the office directly at 1-844-492-7225 or feedback@redskyalliance.com
Reporting: https://www.redskyalliance.org/
Website: https://www.redskyalliance.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64265941
Weekly Cyber Intelligence Briefings:
REDSHORTS - Weekly Cyber Intelligence Briefings
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5378972949933166424
Comments