By Doug Baker, Vice President, Industry Relations, Private Brands, Technology, Food Marketing Institute

Since the beginning to time, humans have used shields of various shapes and sizes to protect themselves while under attack. Some antient armies’ entire battle plans revolved around the overlapping of shields to create an impenetrable force. What’s more, the shield is a highly effective strategy in conquering your opponent—recall the scene in Game of Thornes where Ramsay Bolton’s shielded army encircles John Snow and the Wildlings and slowly begins to inch inward, trapping them.

Modern day demands a new type of shield, especially when it comes to protecting businesses from one of the most deceptive enemies, a cyber attack. Our best defense is to collaborate and share information about previous attacks to help each other be better prepared and learn from missteps. Food retailers are committed to ensuring their customers’ information remains private and protected. As the industry starts to utilize more technology like robotics, self-driving cars, etc., our technology security professionals need to be ahead of the curve and anticipating potential threats.

For all these reasons and more, FMI, with the support of our Information Technology Leadership Council, has joined other industry associations to form the advisory board of the Retail Cyber Information Sharing Center. R-CISC is a platform for sharing research, resources and best practices to mitigate, respond and recover from cyber threats and breaches. As members of this share group, we are held to a high confidentially standard so that we can all learn and grow by hearing the full story.

The work that is already being done through R-CISC is a good way to proactively address and hopefully stay ahead of hackers and bad actors. Collaboration among technology security professionals is our modern-day shield and by working together we all get stronger.

Learn More About R-CISC