Vancouver, Canada, June 26, 2008
Leading IT Vendors Establish Forum to Drive Global Security Response Excellence and Innovation
ICASI to collaborate on response to global security threats across multiple vendors and borders
Today, five leading information technology (IT) vendors announced the creation of the Industry Consortium for Advancement of
Security on the Internet (ICASI), a nonprofit organization that will enhance global IT security by proactively driving excellence and innovation
in security response. Founded by Cisco, International Business Machines, Intel Corporation, Juniper Networks, and Microsoft Corp., ICASI provides a unique
forum for global companies committed to proactively addressing complex, multi-product security threats and to better protecting enterprises,
governments, and citizens, as well as the critical IT infrastructures that support them.
During the last few years, common Internet security threats have evolved from wide-reaching worms and viruses to more
sophisticated, stealth attacks that may begin to simultaneously target multiple products or shared protocols in multiple products. ICASI will
allow IT vendors to work together to address multi-vendor security threats. The consortium will provide a mechanism for international vendor and
customer involvement, and allow for a government-neutral way of resolving significant global, multi-product security incidents.
The increasing sophistication of attacks and the integration of applications, now common in IT environments, pose real challenges
for IT vendors. Online attacks occur more frequently and in more rapid succession, while often spanning international boundaries. To date there has
not been a trusted vendor environment that allows companies to identify, assess, and mitigate multi-product, global security challenges together on
the customers’ behalf. ICASI aims to fill this void.
ICASI does not seek to respond to every product security issue that emerges, but rather the consortium is designed to respond to
and ideally reduce the potential customer impact of global, multi-vendor cyber threats. The organization is organized around four guiding principles.
- Customer security — Through ICASI’s collaboration and leadership, IT vendors will be better able to identify and resolve
multi-vendor security threats quickly, thereby helping to reduce the security threat impact and improve customer security.
- Agility and effectiveness — ICASI is committed to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of multi-vendor threat
resolution and security response practices.
- Collaboration and trust — ICASI creates a unique environment where information, necessary to quickly solve security-related
threats, can be shared, as appropriate.
- Leadership and innovation — ICASI includes leading IT companies from around the world and leverages their expertise to
innovate security response excellence, which it shares with the industry.
ICASI’s commitment to advance Internet security includes changing how vendors work together on multi-product security fixes. Developing
and sharing innovations for preventing and mitigating security challenges is also a core focus for ICASI members.
As cyber security challenges change, ICASI members seek to work with other leading firms that have a sustained commitment to advancing
security response and engineering excellence to mitigate multi-product, international security incidents.
Cisco
“At Cisco we are always looking for new ways to enhance how we help our customers protect their organizations. By working with
this large ecosystem of security companies, we are confident that ICASI will promulgate more responsive and comprehensive processes and best practices
that enhance the global security landscape and ultimately will better protect how our customers live, work and play.”
David Goddard, Vice President for Security Assurance, Cisco
International Business Machines
“It is important for IBM to collaborate with some of the top technology companies to try to increase the security
protections for both IBM's clients and ourselves internally. This is why IBM supports ICASI with 100 percent enthusiasm. We’re passionate
about providing sustainable businesses for our clients and we recognize the need to collaborate with the world’s security leaders to do that
successfully. During the last few years, common Internet security threats have evolved from wide-reaching worms and viruses to more targeted,
stealth attacks specifically for theft of work and personal data. By supporting ICASI, IBM provides not only an aggressive, proactive and
preventative approach to security, but we also have a defined defensive strategy in place in the event of the most unthinkable security breaches.”
Linda Betz, Director, IT Policy and Information Security, International Business Machines
Intel Corporation
"It is critical that the technology industry strengthen its ability to combat the ever-changing nature of the global
cyber threat landscape. ICASI is an ideal opportunity for a trusted dialogue within the vendor community to affect a positive change in
cyber security and response. Intel's involvement in ICASI reinforces our commitment to ensuring the security of computing environments
and rapid response to security events globally.”
Malcom Harkin, General Manager, Information Risk and Security Information Technology Group, Intel
Juniper Networks
“Juniper has long recognized the need for a trust-based collaborative means within which we could operate
in the event of multi-vendor network security vulnerabilities. As the security threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly and
becomes increasingly sophisticated, our customers rely on us to create a responsive and trusted environment that detects and mitigates
threats. Embarking on ICASI is another step in our commitment to deliver high-performance networking and world-class security for our customers.”
Michael Frendo, Senior Vice President, High-End Security Systems, Juniper Networks
Microsoft
“The Internet has transformed the way many of us live. Social networking represents the new town square; blogging has
turned citizens into journalists; and e-commerce sites have spurred global competition in the marketplace. But as the Internet has become more
integral to our daily lives, many people believe that online security and privacy are at unacceptable levels. To truly improve online security
and privacy, the industry must come together through dialogue, collaboration and consensus, and we believe ICASI is a crucial step in that direction.”
George Stathakopoulos, General Manager, Product Security, Microsoft Corporation
