The power of partnership in building cyber resilience

We believe every individual and company around the world should be empowered to meet its security needs. Achieving this will require a collective global effort as we harness the power of partnership to strengthen our defenses together.?

?Strength in numbers. Stronger together. Together we stand. Societies around the world recognize the benefits of collective behavior. The power of multistakeholder partnerships in cybersecurity, too, cannot be ignored as we seek to answer the question, “What we can do to ensure a more safe and secure world for everyone on the planet?” Individual organizations are often focused on safeguarding their own data and systems and protecting their customers, constituents, and communities.?

?But partnerships act as a force multiplier for everyone involved in cybersecurity. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders—including government agencies, private sector entities, academia, non-profits, and other organizations—are crucial in building resilient defenses against cyber threats.?

?Introducing the cyber poverty line?

To understand the need for collaboration, it is useful to consider the concept of a “cyber poverty line.” In the same way that governments and economists establish a social poverty line to determine a bare minimum standard of living, the cyber poverty line is the minimum level of resources required for adequate protection from cyber threats. As we ponder the implication of the existence of a cyber poverty line, important questions begin to surface. How, exactly, do we quantify the cyber poverty line? Who is below it and how can we work together to support them to rise above it? These questions underscore the imperative of partnership in cybersecurity and serve as the genesis of meaningful conversations we must have.?

?Public-private partnerships, policy, and standards?

The opportunities for partnership across the public and private sectors, policy organizations,?and standards bodies are multi-dimensional. From ensuring the technology community is building safer, more secure technology and collaborating on threat intelligence and trends to developing?common standards to take down and block the tools cybercriminals use, strong and bi-directional?partnerships between organizations are crucial.?

?As much as any individual company’s shareholders would like it to be so, no one technology company can solve or overcome every cybersecurity challenge. Partnerships across the technology?community are an absolute necessity to ensure organizations of all types and sizes, in every industry and region, can protect themselves. This means working together to push the boundaries of innovation, ensuring technical integration of products in the security space and addressing the end-to-end security needs of customers.?