RILA Teams With NCFTA
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has formed a partnership with the nonprofit National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) to improve cybersecurity information sharing and aid retailers’ proactive approach to cyberthreats. As part of its aim of bolstering collaboration across the entire payments system, RILA has also joined forces with the Financial Services Roundtable to head a collaborative effort between the retail and financial services industries.
“Our partnership with NCFTA is one of many information-sharing models we are pursuing as part of our multi-solution approach to cybersecurity,” explained Lisa LaBruno, SVP of retail operations at Arlington, Va.-based RILA. “Collaboration among retailers and other stakeholders is essential to detecting threats early on and combatting cyber-criminals.”
‘Smarter and Stronger’
Improving industry-wide cybersecurity capabilities through information sharing, seeking innovative technologies and boosting the security of the payments system are key components of the association’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Initiative. The partnership with NCFTA, which specializes in establishing public-private partnerships, “will provide a trusted forum through which retailers can collaborate on effective solutions to combat cyber-criminals in a cooperative environment,” according to RILA.
“By working together to share threat intelligence, everyone will be smarter and stronger in their quest to protect their brand, business and most importantly, their customers,” said Maria Vello, CEO of the Pittsburgh-based NCFTA. “Effectively addressing cybercrimes demands a new and collective response; this is exactly what RILA is doing.”
The partnership, which will widen retailers’ cybersecurity network to encompass academia, law enforcement, financial institutions and other industries, is supported by RILA’s Retail Cybersecurity Leaders Council (RCLC), a body comprising retail information security executives from among the trade group’s membership. In March, the RCLC will meet at the NCFTA to launch the information sharing-process across industries.