The program is called the Cyber Defense Network for the Financial Services Industry, or CDN/FS. It will include STIX/TAXII -based community cyber threat intelligence sharing among members as well as abilities to take defensive actions that individual member companies can use. The network will support critical infrastructure industries, starting with financial services.

Data breaches at organizations such as Equifax, Whole Foods, JP Morgan, the UK’s National Health Service, the US Internal Revenue Service and German rail network, to name a few, have focused minds on how vulnerable internet-facing computing systems are. With more appliances and businesses being linked to the internet – the “internet of things” – the stakes are rising. Such matters were recently discussed at the Family Wealth Report conference on cyber-security and family offices in New York City, a report of which is forthcoming. 

"Given the increasing threats to the financial services industry, it's imperative to improve the cyber-defense for the industry at large as well as for individual members. CDN/FS will begin with initial defensive measures that will grow over time,” Aurbrey Chernick, NC4 founder, said. 

The cyber threat intelligence side of the network is a cloud-based solution that takes advantage of STIX/TAXII -based standards. Cyber-threat intelligence professionals of member organizations can create anonymous threat indicators to share with other members and will ise the NC4 Mission Center™ cyber-threat sharing tools and Soltra Edge® tools. 

Early actions will focus on blocking access to malicious sites and documents. According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing and spearfishing attacks are increasing.