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NRF issues statement on White House Cybersecurity Summit

The National Retail Federation issued the following statement from President and CEO Matthew Shay on the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection held today at Stanford University:

February 13, 2015

The National Retail Federation issued the following statement from President and CEO Matthew Shay on the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection held today at Stanford University:

“We commend the White House and President Obama for providing solution-based leadership around the significant threat posed by hackers and other cybercriminals. We are encouraged that the administration is pursuing a comprehensive approach and proposing the creation of new Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations, where companies can share information about cyber threats with the government and across sectors of the economy.

“The executive order is very much in line with what we are already doing to identify, classify and disseminate intelligence on actual and potential cyber threats to more than 150 of the best-known retail brands and companies, large and small. It is an acknowledgement that industries need more flexible and nimble information-sharing platforms to combat cyber threats in the future.

“The NRF information-sharing platform, established and operational since mid-2014, is a joint private/public partnership and includes alerts from both government and non-government sources, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Secret Service. This real-time and actionable alert system helps retailers and merchants prevent and combat threats to their companies and customers — over 2,000 alerts have been provided to retailers since its inception.

“The retail industry is committed to safeguarding consumer data and looks forward to working with the president and Congress to achieve practical solutions to this serious problem. Whether it’s PIN-and-Chip credit cards or adoption of point-to-point data encryption, retailers are leading the fight for stronger cybersecurity.”