Partnerships in the new locations will help to combat global cyber crime threats
Pittsburgh, PA – January 8, 2016 – The National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), a growing non-profit cyber threat information sharing organization based in Pittsburgh, has announced it will be opening offices in Los Angeles and New York City in 2016.
The NCFTA was established in Pittsburgh in 2002, as a neutral, trusted environment for companies, government, and academia to work together on indentifying, mitigating, and ultimately neutralizing cyber crime threats globally. “This will be the first expansion of the NCFTA,” said Matt LaVigna, Interim President & CEO. “We believe this is the right direction to take to increase industry opportunities to work together, side by side with law enforcement in our neutral environment and build upon the successes we’ve had in Pittsburgh.”
Through the NCFTA, leading companies, subject matter experts, and strategic government agencies work side by side in a neutral environment to responsibly share cyber threat information in order to develop threat intelligence as part of an international effort to combat and defeat cyber crime. Companies come from multiple industries and from around the globe – including financial services, pharmaceutical, energy, telecommunications, technology, manufacturing, and retail – to work with the NCFTA and government agencies. As partners, participating companies learn about cyber threats in real time and are able take proactive steps to mitigate and protect their systems, assets, data, reputation, and customers.
By expanding its physical presence, the NCFTA strives to provide a number of benefits to existing partners, including increased opportunity for on-site industry participation, a substantial increase in threat visibility derived from increased company participation, and additional industry and sector coverage to companies located on the West Coast and in the New York area. “We will look to leverage our successful Pittsburgh model through facilities on the East and West Coasts and further our ‘One Team, One Goal’ mission statement”, said LaVigna.
“The NCFTA’s work in Pittsburgh has contributed directly to countless FBI investigations,” said Randall Coleman, Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “We’re excited to collaborate with the NCFTA as it expands and are deeply grateful for all the organization has done to help the FBI, the U.S. government, and governments around the world combat cyber crime.”
“We are extremely pleased with our ongoing relationship with the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance. Our involvement with NCFTA gives us key access to an environment of multidisciplinary industry sectors, skills and resources so important to helping our students improve their understanding of what it takes to combat cyber crime and the platform to assist our world-class faculty in developing critical risk assessment tools,” said Michael Spring, a professor of information science and technology at the University of Pittsburgh.
The NCFTA emphasizes that cyber crime can also support and enable other crimes including human and drug trafficking, terrorist activities, child exploitation, and other illicit activities. Through NCFTA initiatives, hundreds of criminal and civil investigations which otherwise would not have been addressed have been launched.
The NCFTA anticipates the new offices will be opened in Los Angeles and New York during fiscal year 2016.