CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) Security announced a new project with the City of Los Angeles and the LA Cyber Lab to
help local businesses collaborate to fight cybercrime. As part of
the new collaboration, IBM will provide technologies and data that
can help give local businesses an edge when defending against
cyberattacks. The LA Cyber Lab, a non-profit providing threat
intelligence to local businesses, will make two new free tools
available; a threat information sharing platform and a mobile
application for filtering suspicious emails – that leverages IBM
Security threat intelligence.
According to the Center for Strategic International
Studies, the estimated global cost of cybercrime in 2018 was
$600 billion1. One way to
help protect against cyberattacks is via the use of threat
intelligence that alerts businesses to ongoing cybersecurity
threats and campaigns targeting a city or municipality. Security
operation centers or industry special interest groups routinely
share this type of threat activity; however, it is rare to involve
small and midsize businesses. The City of
Los Angeles and the LA Cyber Lab collaborated with IBM
Security to build a complimentary platform where local businesses
can share threat information, and where members of the community
can then access that information and use it in their cyber
defenses.
"Public safety in the 21st century isn't just about protecting
our physical streets and neighborhoods — we need to protect the
digital presence that is part of everyday life for our residents
and businesses," said Mayor Garcetti. "The Threat Intelligence
Sharing Platform and mobile app will advance the LA Cyber Lab's
work that has made our city a national cybersecurity model, all
while better defending Angelenos from cyber threats."
As part of today's announcement, IBM Security is also scaling
its efforts to help cities equip local businesses with cyber
defenses via new IBM offerings using the same underlying technology
and threat intelligence deployed by Los
Angeles. Also, to help cities prepare for cyberattacks on
their own infrastructure, IBM is hosting complimentary training
sessions for municipalities in the IBM X-Force Command Cyber Range
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where
they can simulate attacks and practice their response. City
governments are increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals, in
fact just this year more than 70 cities in the U.S. have fallen
victim to ransomware.
IBM Collaboration with the City of Los Angeles
The centerpiece of IBM's collaboration with the City of Los Angeles and the LA Cyber Lab is
the new threat sharing platform called the LA Cyber
Lab Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing Platform
(TISP). This platform makes it easy for citizens
to share their spear-phishing concerns and educate themselves
on the latest business email compromise (BEC) or ransomware
campaigns. For example, if a user submits a suspicious email, the
platform reviews the email and extracts key information to search
25+ common and unique data sources to indicate the level of risk.
IBM X-Force is one of the data sources used to supply the risk
level. IBM X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services
(IRIS) takes this one step further, by correlating key information
to the associated threat group and their latest attack
campaign.
IBM Security teamed up with enterprise intelligence management
platform, TruSTAR, to develop the cloud-based platform. LA Cyber
Lab worked with partners for this platform including the
City of Los Angeles, City National
Bank, IBM - as well as municipalities and services including the
utilities, financial, healthcare, entertainment, and critical
infrastructure sectors. These partners will share unique threat
insights about cyberattacks, business email compromise (BEC) data
and phishing to assist businesses in the LA-area functioning
without proper cybersecurity resources.
As part of today's announcement, LA Cyber Lab also designed a
mobile application that any citizen can use to submit and analyze
suspicious emails to determine their risk, and if they are phishing
related. This information will also help enrich the threat
information on the active threats targeting businesses in
Los Angeles, delivered via the
threat sharing platform. The LA Cyber Lab Mobile App is now
available for download on Google Play and via the Apple App
Store.
Both the LA Cyber Lab Cyber TISP and the LA Cyber Lab Mobile
App, leverage threat insights from IBM X-Force
Exchange, which spans 800 TB of threat activity data,
information on over 17 million spam and phishing attacks, real-time
reports of live attacks, reputation data on nearly 1 million
malicious IP addresses from a network of 270 million
endpoints. These insights, combined with X-Force IRIS Threat
Intelligence, can provide users with information needed to combat
modern day threats.
Training Cities on Preparedness
In an effort to help
cities, IBM will offer three complimentary security preparedness
trainings using ransomware and other common attack methods. These
trainings are designed to assist cities to better protect and
prepare for today's cybersecurity threats via immersive cyberattack
simulations conducted at IBM X-Force Command, IBM Security's Cyber
Range in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
IBM's Cyber Range immerses attendees in simulated cyberattacks
to train them on how they can prepare for, respond to, and manage a
broad variety of threats. Simulations use live malware, ransomware
and other real-world hacker tools to deliver realistic cyberattack
experiences. The facility features an air-gapped network of a
fictitious entity, used for simulated attacks. Since opening in
November 2016, the Cyber Range has
hosted more than 4,500 visitors including major banks, retailers,
hospitals, and government representatives.
"Cities need to be looking at the root of the problem rather
than dealing with threats such as ransomware as one-off
situations," said Wendi Whitmore,
Vice President X-Force Threat Intelligence, IBM Security. "Taking
preventative steps to strengthen cybersecurity in cities now, can
help them prepare for, and protect against, issues in the future.
These attacks have reached the point where governments need to
place an importance on them and develop response plans, similar to
how they handle state of emergencies."
IBM Security Offerings
- Complimentary Cyber Range Exercise for
Cities: Developed to train cities on incident response and
preparedness through cyberattack simulations created specifically
for the public sector - these simulations will take place once a
month, between October and December
2019, and immerse attendees in what it would be like to
experience a cyberattack attack against a city. To learn more about
IBM's Cyber Range and how to attend one of the upcoming sessions
for cities, go to http://ibm.biz/cyber-range-cities
Cities & Public Sector 2019 Trainings:
-
- October 22, 2019
- November 19, 2019
- December 10, 2019
- Enterprise Intelligence Management: Similar to the LA
Cyber Lab Cyber TISP deployed in Los
Angeles, IBM Security has made TruSTAR's Enterprise
Intelligence Management (EIM) platform available for cities to
purchase as they develop their own threat sharing initiatives. The
platform is designed to assist cities looking to enable businesses,
government agencies, and other third parties to automatically
exchange threat intelligence information.
- X-Force IRIS Threat Intelligence: Providing
cities with insights from the collective expertise of IBM X-Force
IRIS researchers and front-line responders to help properly
identify and measure risk, as well as respond to cyber threats in
their area. Armed with this intelligence, cities can determine
their threat level, identify threat groups and their tactics, as
well as learn how to best respond.
- X-Force IRIS Vision Retainer: This subscription
service provides cities with 24x7 access to a team of trusted
experts trained to respond to cyber threats and swiftly mitigate
damages and recover. In addition, these experts provide proactive
services that span developing customized incident response plans,
playbooks, tests them with leadership, conducts threat assessments,
dark web analysis, and more. To learn more, go to:
https://ibm.biz/Bdzhhx
For more information on IBM X-Force IRIS go to
http://ibm.biz/IBM-X-Force-IRIS. If you're experiencing an
emergency, contact IBM X-Force IRIS' incident response 24/7
hotline: 888-241-9812
About IBM Security
IBM Security offers one of the
most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security
products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned
IBM X-Force® research, enables organizations to effectively manage
risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM operates one of
the world's broadest security research, development and delivery
organizations, monitors 70 billion security events per day in
more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000
security patents worldwide. For more information, please
check www.ibm.com/security, follow @IBMSecurity on Twitter or visit
the IBM Security Intelligence blog.
Media Contacts:
Kelly Kane
IBM Security Media Relations
kkane@us.ibm.com
413-297-2668
Kim Samra
IBM Security Media Relations
ksamra@ibm.com
510-468-6406
1 James Lewis,
Economic Impact of Cybercrime – No Slowing Down (McAfee
& Center for Strategic International Studies, 2018)
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SOURCE IBM