A new organization has been established in the United States to share information regarding cyber-threats with political campaigns.
The US CyberDome PC-ISAO is the first-ever political campaign information sharing and analysis organization to be created in America. It was formed by neutral American non-profit organization US CyberDome and officially launched on March 11.
“US CyberDome is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that protects political campaigns from cyber and dis-information threats,” said former US homeland secretary Jeh Johnson, who serves as chairperson on CyberDome’s advisory board.
“US CyberDome furthers that effort today by announcing the formation of the first-ever information sharing and analysis organization for political campaigns.”
Information sharing and analysis organizations, or ISAOs, were chartered through a US Presidential Executive Order for Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing issued by President Barack Obama in February 2015.
The Political Campaign ISAO was founded to give cybersecurity advice, issue alerts on specific threats, and share intelligence specifically to political campaigns, which can be tempting targets for cyber-attackers. Information on cyber-threats can be shared anonymously.
Five different levels of membership are offered, and campaigns at all levels of United States federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government are invited to participate.
Former Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff, who serves on the US CyberDome Board of Advisors, said: “The PC-ISAO is a neutral and non-partisan venue where technologists can share critical cybersecurity alerts and best practices. The PC-ISAO helps members collaborate on critical cybersecurity challenges.”
US CyberDome founder Joseph Drissel hopes the PC-ISAO will help to break down existing barriers to sharing tips on which threats to look out for.
“Commonly occurring conditions within political campaigns create barriers for sharing cyber threat intelligence and collaborating on cybersecurity,” said Drissel. “Our non-profit facilitates fully anonymous cyber threat information sharing and connects campaign technologists to increase the safety of political campaigns.”
US CyberDome comprises cybersecurity experts who have trained and practiced at the world’s largest accredited computer forensics and incident response institute in the world, the Defense Cyber Crime Center, as well as the US Department of Defense and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).