The city of Los Angeles teamed with IBM Security to launch the L.A. Cyber Lab’s (LACL) Threat Intelligence Sharing Platform (TISP) and a mobile application to thwart phishing attempts, the entities announced Tuesday. Both releases are believed to be firsts for an American city, Los Angeles said in its news release.
“… from the LA Cyber Lab standpoint, TISP hasn’t been used before and this will be the first outing,” Josh Belk, LACL executive director, told Techwire via email, noting other organizations have used similar tools. Among the takeaways:
• The platform, from subcontractor TruSTAR, was developed following an RFP this spring, and funded with $3 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It aggregates cyberthreats from city agencies, government partners and participating private businesses, which can then be shared anonymously for analysis and compared to existing information. The RFP sought a contractor to “design and build a bi-directional, cloud-based data sharing platform,” to enable an automatic information exchange through LACL.
“The Cyber Lab will use this information to generate threat intelligence and trend analysis for all members, including smaller-sized businesses who would ordinarily not be able to track these threats,” the city said in its news release.
Initial partners include City National Bank, IBM, AT&T, Cedars-Sinai and the city of Santa Monica. In a statement, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who launched the public-private partnership LACL in 2017, said the releases will advance its work considerably.
“Public safety in the 21st century isn’t just about protecting our physical streets and neighborhoods — we need to protect the digital presence that is part of everyday life for our residents and businesses,” Garcetti said.
• The work with IBM, the result of a two-year contract, is underpinned by the company’s Security X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services (IRIS), which began two years ago as an Intelligence Sharing Liaison initiative,” Kevin Albano, X-Force IRIS associate partner, told Techwire via email. X-Force IRIS “worked with enterprise intelligence management partner TruSTAR to deliver this cloud-based cyberthreat intelligence platform,” he said.
“IBM X-Force Exchange lends its 800 terabytes of deep threat information data of more than 17 million spam and phishing attacks to score indicators shared by LA Cyber Lab partners,” Albano added.
• LACL’s app, Belk said via email, is a “hybrid mobile app which connects with the TISP,” developed by The Rosslyn Group. It filters questionable emails to identify email and ransomware threats — useful for small businesses that may not have the resources to field security teams of their own. Using IBM’s X-Force to look at domains, IP addresses and links, and 15 indicators, the app compares user submissions to other emails on the platform that “contain malicious material.” It will correlate those emails with threat intelligence to determine their risk level; and “flag larger threat campaigns” to provide a higher-level view of threats in the city. The app is available free on Google Play and Apple’s app store.
“We split the vendors and when we came through the RFP process, we recognized there wasn’t an SMB (small-medium business) connection like we had called for. And so this idea came about. We had the budget for it and we split the statement of work to two companies to make that happen,” Belk said in an interview, adding: “We want this to become something that’s reliable and not just a feed that’s full of nonsense.”
• IBM Security will ramp up its efforts to “help cities equip local businesses with cyber defenses” with new offerings that use the same tech and threat intelligence L.A. has deployed. The company will host free training for municipalities at its X-Force Command Cyber Range in Cambridge, Mass., where staffers can “simulate attacks and practice their response.” Upcoming free Cyber Range Exercise for Cities sessions are planned Oct. 22, Nov. 19 and Dec. 10, Albano said.
