John Watters, founder of iSIGHT Partners, says obtaining timely, accurate information about the latest cyberthreats is challenging because there’s so much misinformation available. “There is not a central place – or a knowledge center – where everyone can draw information from to take action,” he says. Today what we’ve seen is really the convergence of the threat environment – now the private and public sectors are being targeted by the same threats.
The recent wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks illustrates the need to stay well-informed about the very latest threats, Watters says. “We help our members demystify some of this information, which allows them to prioritize their resources to focus on the real, true threats,” he says.
Before joining the FS-ISAC, a non-profit association dedicated to protecting financial services firms from physical and cyberattacks, Nelson was elected vice chairman of the ISAC Council, a group dedicated to sharing critical infrastructure information.
Over the past decade, Watters has been involved with numerous cybersecurity companies, including TippingPoint Technologies, Archer Technologies, Netwitness and Lookingglass, in addition to iDEFENSE and iSIGHT Partners.