NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association has launched a cybersecurity product created especially for small broadband providers. Based on a pilot program administered by NTCA in 2019 with funding from the National Institute of Hometown Security and Department of Homeland Security, CyberShare is intended to provide indicators of attacks as well as actionable threat information.
"CyberShare offers subscribers a number of critical tools in terms of risk management: alerts and news, peer-to-peer sharing, and networking and access to experts that small providers might not otherwise have," said NTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield. "Once we saw the positive response from our pilot participants, we knew our industry would benefit."
"Cybersecurity can no longer be seen as just a function of the IT department - it's a business practice critical to your entire organization and, more importantly, your customers," said pilot participant Darren Djernes, information systems supervisor at Garden Valley Technologies in Erskine, MN. "All employees and departments need to be involved, engaged and doing their part in the fight to keep our companies safe and secure in today's environment."
"Given these challenging times, customer networks are likely to be more vulnerable than they were even just a month ago," said Bloomfield. "Although we couldn't introduce CyberShare at our Telecom Executive Forum as planned, NTCA knew it was important to move forward with our launch as a way we can help serve our members."
CyberShare participants have access to daily and weekly reports, in-person and virtual meetings, and a secure web platform. The subscription provides a community for local and regional telecommunications operators to collaborate to improve their security posture. Results from the pilot program indicate that 90% of the participants found it very useful, and 95% said they would recommend it to peers.
More information about CyberShare is available at https://www.ntca.org/member-services/cybershare.