A Cybersecurity Think Tank Becomes a CRI Champion

New York, February 21 — The Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI) is excited to announce that the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) has joined our network of CRI Champions. ICIT, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., provides in-depth reports and facilitates knowledge-sharing through forums where cybersecurity leaders can discuss ways to improve the support and protection of critical U.S. infrastructures.

The non-profit cybersecurity think tank will also contribute analysis concerning key cybersecurity issues affecting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). “SMBs play an important role in many of our nation’s critical infrastructures, yet far too often they do not have the same cybersecurity resource as their enterprise level counterparts. CRI offers these organizations meaningful tools to improve their cybersecurity posture and ICIT is proud to support CRI however it can,” said Parham Eftekhari, Executive Director at ICIT.

ICIT recently published a report that provides guidance for SMBs regarding USB-enabled devices, a cyber issue that is also addressed in the Cyber Readiness Program. Mr. Eftekhari explained: “The explosion of USB enabled devices has opened up a new attack vector. SMBs can mitigate this risk by closing USB ports on-premise, implementing policies to limit how unauthorized USB enabled devices interact with business equipment, and assessing their supply chains to only partner with trusted manufacturers who adhere to strong cyber hygiene practices.”

ICIT’s publications also include a recent report outlining the types of roles that can be created within small businesses to enable them to most effectively improve and sustain cyber readiness.

ICIT will work closely with CRI and other Champions to publicize and disseminate CRI’s free tools – including the CRI Program – to SMBs around the world.

CRI is a non-profit organization that works to help small- and medium-sized businesses improve their cyber readiness in order to secure global value chains. Toward this goal, CRI offers a free, non-technical, self-guided Cyber Readiness Program that focuses on the critical cyber issues for SMBs, notably phishing, patching, authentication and passphrases, and the use of removable media. CRI works with partners–we call them Champions–to distribute our tools to SMBs around the world to raise awareness about the importance of cyber readiness for small businesses. When companies are cyber ready, they are cyber strong.