FIS, a large banking and payments technology provider, will collaborate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a cybersecurity research partner, the company said on February 3rd.
Under the partnership, FIS representatives will work with DHS’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center to address and respond to cyber-threats against the global financial industry and critical infrastructure. A 24×7 cyber-monitoring, incident response and management center, NCCIS collaborates and shares information with federal, state, and local government agencies, private sector organizations, and international entities about evolving threats. The center provides information about situation awareness vulnerabilities, intrusions, incidents, mitigation, and recovery actions, according to the DHS.
FIS believes the collaboration would improve the security of financial transactions worldwide.
There’s a growing consensus among government agencies and private sector that information sharing is critical to defend against evolving threats and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) is one such effort led by the financial services industry to share information about physical and cyber security threats and vulnerabilities with partners in the private sector and in the government.
“We’re proud of our partnership with DHS and will leverage this experience to continue to strengthen the banking and payments environments for financial institutions and the customers they serve,” Greg Montana, executive vice-president and chief risk officer of FIS, said in a statement.
Fahmida Y. Rashid is an accomplished security journalist and technologist. She is a regular contributor for several publications including iPCMag.com where she is a networking and security analyst. She also was a senior writer at eWeek where she covered security, core Internet infrastructure and open source. As well, she was a senior technical editor at CRN Test Center reviewing open source, storage, and networking products.