SINET’s taxonomy organizes and depicts the full span of cyber security technologies available to commercial end users. The idea is to facilitate collaboration between the public and private sectors to defeat cyber security threats. The TM Forum plans to incorporate the taxonomy into a future release of its Frameworx suite of back-office and operational standards in an effort to help standardize and refine the terminology used to describe security technologies worldwide.
“SINET’s taxonomy has been used for over a decade and continues to change to reflect the dynamic nature of the security industry,” said John Muir, managing director for SINET. “The technologies are arranged in 17 security themed categories with approximately 150 sub-categories.”
By adding it to Frameworx, TN Forum’s communications service provider members and vendors can gain access to classifications of more than 1,000 security products, ultimately making the application of cyber-security standards and best practices easier and more cost-effective than ever before. That’s especially important in communications, where IP-based broadband and wireless networks are increasingly open to threats.
SINET has taken as its mission the goal to explore open security innovation models, embrace collaboration opportunities and help re-invigorate the importance of domestic and international public-private partnerships as security threats continue to grow. Jane Holl Lutte, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for the Department of Homeland Security, said in her ITSEF 2012 keynote that cyber-security spending totals approximately $1 billion per week in the United States, but cybercrime keeps rising exponentially. SINET estimates that 431 million adults in 24 countries experienced the costly challenges of identity theft in 2011: the ratio of Americans alone affected by identity theft has now reached to 1:3. About 85% of companies have admitted to data breaches, too.