New group promises to unite security industry

Hackers are increasingly testing the resolve of the vendor community

A new industry body has been set up to promote closer co-operation and information sharing between vendors in the notoriously competitive IT security industry.

The Industry Connections Security Group (ICSG) has been established under the aegis of the IEEE Standards Association, and includes most of the major security vendors, including Symantec, McAfee, Sophos and Trend Micro.

The ICSG argues that, although there are already numerous examples of cross-industry security bodies, such as the Anti Phishing Working Group, this co-operation typically "has not been standardised or documented in a format that lends itself to systematic improvement in operational efficiency, or visibility and review by people outside the vertical industries".

"The IEEE is a well-known brand recognised for delivering standards. By forming the ICSG under its umbrella, we can make use of its existing infrastructure and invite non-traditional players to participate," said Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley.

"Already the security group is improving the situation by developing an electronic delivery mechanism that not only shares the malware samples, but can include useful information such as the web site where the samples were found."

The need for greater collaboration in the security space has been highlighted by the continuing rise in threats. Statistics released last week by security-as-a-service firm ScanSafe found that web-based malware surged by over a third in the most recent quarter, and that zero-day attacks now comprise nearly 90 per cent of all threats.