The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s remarks on cyber security in the State of the Union address.
Arlington, VA, 2015-1-22 — /EPR Retail News/ — “The President’s focus on cyber and data security is welcome in the fight against evolving cyber-attacks. Retailers call on Congress to provide assistance and ensure retailers have the partners and the tools to fight a growing and sophisticated enemy and protect Americans. This includes increased threat information sharing, a single, national data breach notification law, increased card security and collaboration on evolving technologies in order to defeat cyber criminals.”
The attacks from nation state actors, cybercriminals, and hacktivists are increasingly targeting American businesses and financial institutions with more sophistication than before. We must work together to discover and defeat attacks, mitigate harm, and create resilient systems. Retailers have made great strides this year, including:
First Retail ISAC – The Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center
Last year RILA, along with some of America’s leading retailers, set up the first ISAC for the industry, the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC). The R-CISC is a comprehensive resource for retailers to receive and share threat information, advance leading practices and develop research relevant to fighting cyber threats.
The R-CISC is the cybersecurity resource for the retail industry, open to retailers and merchants of all segments and sizes and aims to become a resource for not only the retail industry but related merchant industries as well. The R-CISC is making tremendous strides and is now interviewing and hiring an Executive Director to run the Center. This is just one more step to continuing the growth of the center. More here: www.r-cisc.org
Cyber Threat Information Sharing Legislation
RILA partnered with the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) last year to establish the Merchant-Financial Cyber Partnership. The Partnership was created to bring the two industries together to work on a private sector solution to protect the payments system. At the end of 2014, the Partnership sent a joint letter to Congress outlining principles for and urging Congress to pass cyber threat information sharing legislation.
RILA is the trade association of the world’s largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.
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Allie Brandenburger
Senior Director, Communications
Phone: 703-600-2063
Email: allie.brandenburger@rila.org