Accenture, IBM, Mandiant be a part of Elite Cyber Defenders Program to safe vital infrastructure

Main cybersecurity response corporations Accenture, IBM, and Mandiant have joined the Elite Cyber Defenders Program – a brand new, collaborative initiative designed to assist safe vital infrastructure. Led by Nozomi Networks, this system goals to offer world industrial and authorities clients entry to sturdy cybersecurity protection instruments, incident response groups, and risk intelligence.

The Elite Cyber Defenders Program was introduced throughout RSA Convention in San Francisco and comes because the cyberthreats posed to world vital infrastructure stay excessive. This week, it was revealed that the group answerable for the availability chain assault towards VoIP firm 3CX additionally breached two vital infrastructure organizations within the vitality sector. Final week, the UK Nationwide Cyber Safety Centre (NCSC) warned of a brand new class of Russian cyber adversary threatening vital infrastructure organizations.

Contributors will supply {custom} incident response, evaluation packages

Every participant in this system will supply custom-designed incident response and evaluation packages for joint clients, according to the announcement. Elite Cyber Defenders have additionally dedicated to working with Nozomi Networks Labs on shared risk intelligence and joint safety analysis targeted on figuring out novel malware and new TTPs employed by risk actors, it added.

Nozomi Networks Elite Cyber Defenders collectively employees greater than 250 licensed Nozomi Networks specialists on their mixed world OT incident response groups and use Nozomi Networks’ options for forensic evaluation, proactive OT assessments, and fast response capabilities for patrons, the agency stated.

Industrial environments quickly reworking, creating new safety challenges

Industrial environments are quickly reworking, creating new safety challenges that attackers are actively exploiting. Assaults on manufacturing and vitality represented greater than 35% of all assaults noticed in 2022, in response to IBM’s 2023 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index.

The heightened geopolitical panorama is fueling a resurgence of cyberattacks from teams who’re extra structured and harmful – and focusing on excessive worth vital infrastructure, stated Jim Guinn, world cyber business lead at Accenture. In terms of defending vital infrastructure within the face of assaults, correct and well timed info, full system visibility, and professional response are key, added Nozomi Networks CEO Edgard Capdevielle.

“The Elite Cyber Defenders program will carry collectively IBM’s incident response capabilities and experience and Nozomi Networks’ deep OT/IoT expertise from the method automation discipline and thorough information to help organizations,” stated Charles Henderson, head of IBM Safety X-Pressure. Nozomi Networks’ visibility platform may even present vital context for Mandiant’s incident response specialists, serving to them to shortly establish and comprise threats, added Charles Carmakal, CTO, Mandiant Consulting.

Earlier this week, world OT cybersecurity leaders and demanding infrastructure defenders introduced the founding of ETHOS (Rising Risk Open Sharing), a vendor-agnostic expertise platform for sharing risk info to strengthen cybersecurity defenses throughout vital industries.