GRF Foundation Receives a Gula Tech Foundation Grant for Cybersecurity Education

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GRF Foundation, the 501(c)3 arm of Global Resilience Federation, is pleased to announce that it has received a grant in the Gula Tech Foundation competition “Incorporating Cyber Expertise in Corporate Governance.”

“We’re honored to receive this generous grant from Ron and Cyndi Gula and the Gula Tech Foundation,” said Global Resilience Federation CEO Mark Orsi. “Cybersecurity operations, culture, and, of course, funding must come from the top down which means that company boards must have working knowledge of the threats and solutions available.”

As cyber-attacks have progressed from an annoyance to a disruption, to a systemic business threat, it is vital that senior corporate leadership be fluent in cybersecurity, and that cyber experts be included in leadership decisions. Cyber-mature organizations regularly engage a chief information security officer at the board level. However, many private and public sector organizations don’t have that structure. As a result, cyber risks are often filtered out prior to reaching the attention of the board.

The GRF Foundation is working to address this critical issue. The foundation sees two paths to promoting better corporate governance:

• The first is to train cyber professionals on how to engage boards, presenting risks in business terms, in order to facilitate the addition of those professionals to boards.
• The second is to educate current board and c-suite leaders to further their understanding of the threat environment, likelihood of different risks, and the available mitigations to fortify against attacks and build resilience.

The GRF Foundation is positioned to raise the level of cybersecurity awareness through educational experiences like c-suite roundtable events, summits, tabletop exercises, and ad-hoc events in response to emerging threats.

The GRF Foundation also recently supported development of an Operational Resilience Framework as a multi-sector effort to reduce operational risk, minimize service disruptions, and limit systemic impacts from destructive attacks and events such as ransomware.

The Operational Resilience Framework working groups, as one factor of the project, recognized the same need seen by the Gula Tech Foundation and proposed defining an executive role, supported by the CEO, with board-level visibility and broad reach across business, technology, and risk functions. In development of the framework, executives from over 150 organizations and U.S. regulatory bodies have been engaged for input and public comment. The public comment period ends this month and the final framework will be published in July.

Through the foundation’s efforts, enabled by grants like this, cybersecurity professionals will better learn what is required at the board level, and executives and board members will gain a greater understanding of the current threat environment in a digestible way that makes business sense.

About GRF Foundation
GRF Foundation is the 501(c)3 arm of Global Resilience Federation (GRF). GRF is a non-profit hub and integrator for support, analysis, and cross-sector intelligence exchange among information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs), organizations (ISAOs), and computer emergency readiness/response teams (CERTs). GRF’s mission is to help assure the resilience of critical and essential infrastructure against threats that could significantly impact the orderly functioning of the global economy and general safety of the public. To learn more go to www.grf.org or visit @GRFederation on Twitter or Global Resilience Federation on LinkedIn.