Why Have a Global Cyber Alliance?

By Phil Reitinger


“I’ve been in this meeting before.”  More than anything, I may be known for saying that in cybersecurity policy meetings.  I have found you can ignore what is happening, often for a year or more, take a look again, and you have not missed anything, really.  There are more reports and recommendations, but overall, the cybersecurity situation has become worse.  It is time to stop having the same meeting.

That is the driving idea behind the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA)– Do Something.  Find significant cybersecurity risks – risks where little progress is being made – and focus on mitigating the risk.  That is, focus not on a recommendation for somebody else to implement, but on actually implementing a solution, and measure how effective the solution was.  Then repeat this process, always looking for significant risks where barriers to implementation can be identified, but overcome by the right coalition of partners backed by the support to be provided by GCA.

The best analogy may be disease eradication.  The global health community has significantly limited the existence of diseases like polio.  GCA will focus on having the same effect for cybersecurity risks.  For example, ransomware is a growing problem – can new efforts be undertaken to implement the risk it presents?  We are in the process of identifying right now the first set of risks GCA and its partners will take on.  I am positive that collectively we can make a difference.

Please join us in this effort – contact GCA at [email protected].

The author, Phil Reitinger, is the President and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance 

You can follow him on Twitter @CarpeDiemCyber