Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC) Forms Advisory Council

PRESS RELEASE

Washington, DC – The Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC), home of the Retail ISAC, has formed its Advisory Council. The R-CISC Advisory Council gathers together leading trade associations representing merchant industries, key R-CISC Associate members including industry stakeholders and government agencies, to provide a broader perspective across priorities and visibility on key cybersecurity issues.

The Advisory Council comes together with the joint goal of having a unified voice for merchants in the cybersecurity space. The organizations will collaborate on educational resources, building trust in the community and other initiatives.

The group hosted its inaugural meeting in Washington, DC last month. Organizations in attendance included a few of the members, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), Deloitte, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation (NRF), and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). The Advisory Council is continuing to grow to include other members from government agencies, cybersecurity experts and other merchant trade associations.

During the meeting, the R-CISC presented the retail threat landscape as seen by cybersecurity experts and via R-CISC member sharing of threat information, and potential educational topics for the merchant community, including third-party risk, working with legal departments to gain support for information sharing, and how best to protest small merchant organizations.

“Retailers, restaurants, hotels and consumer-facing industries are intent on protecting their customers and their companies from cyber threat actors and groups. The R-CISC Advisory Council was formed to unite the advocates for these industries, as well as our strategic partners, with the common goal of providing a forum for discussion on cybersecurity issues and allowing for streamlined messaging on them from our industries,” said Suzie Squier, executive director of the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center, home of the Retail ISAC.

The R-CISC’s number one priority is strengthening collective defenses to better protect members – and the merchant industry – by sharing information on bad actors’ techniques, tactics and processes. By sharing information on these threats with Advisory Council members, the R-CISC helps them in their advocacy on behalf of the merchant industry. The council, in turn, provides support to the R-CISC in continuing to disseminate information about the organization to their members.