Even though the country of US takes massive pride in the level of technological advancement it has achieved over the years, the truth is all that advancement didn’t quite help them in avoiding a long spree of cyberattacks. The attacks have been somewhat incessant and US is yet to get anywhere close to even curbing the numbers at the moment. Cyberattacks aren’t a new thing, but the scale of these recent attacks has deeply stunned everyone. The fact that hackers are able to inflict harm on country’s infrastructure with such an ease is nurturing a panic wave across the country. Law enforcement agencies are scraping around, largely using trial and error to see if they can find a way out. In their latest attempt, we see U.S. National Security Agency joining forces with private sector companies from sectors like defense, technology, and telecommunications.
The foundational idea here is to gain ground level knowledge about different elements pertaining to these cyberattacks. As these companies are being directly targeted by threat actors, it’s only right to learn their general consensus and form a response accordingly.
“I think it is really important for NSA to take a stance where we are engaging and figuring out how to make the environment more secure and everyone is learning from the lessons of the past,” Rob Joyce, NSA director of cybersecurity branch, said during a media interaction.
Following attacks that infiltrated several federal agencies and the largest fuel pipeline, cybersecurity has become a matter of national emergency for U.S. One of the driving factors behind this collaboration is the limitation that NSA faces regarding visibility on potential cyber threats due to legal restrictions. This removes the possibility of NSA having any information about what kind of threat domestic computer networks might be in for. While there hasn’t been any indication that NSA is looking to bypass these legal constraints, the intention is to detect any warnings over potential attacks with the help of this collaboration. For companies, they’ll be looking to make a productive use of NSA’s vast experience and analytical capabilities.
Security experts continue to look at this situation with increasing curiosity. It’s unclear whether the establishment of these collaboration centers is going to be a resounding success, but it could very well be a turning point in this crisis.