ARLINGTON, VA –The Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance), in coordination with the national Cyber Security Partnership, will unveil the first guidebook on information security specifically targeted to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses today. The booklet, entitled "The Common Sense Guide to Cyber Security for Small Businesses," is available free of charge on ISAlliance’s web site at www.isalliance.org

“The recent MyDoom virus attacks cost American business billions of dollars, and small businesses were affected at twice the rate of large businesses,” ISAlliance Executive Director and Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) President Dave McCurdy, a former Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, pointed out. “Despite that fact, a recent review of literature suggests that there has been virtually nothing available to the small business community to help direct them as to what they should be doing to protect themselves, until now.”

Recognizing the absence of material addressing smaller companies needs, The National Cyber Security Summit’s Awareness and Outreach Task Force asked the ISAlliance to produce a common sense guide to cyber security for small businesses in December 2003. Since then the ISAlliance has worked with the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses and conducted ten focus groups involving close to 100 small business owners and operators to find out what their specific needs are, and how small businesses could be motivated to become pro-active on cyber security.

“We took what we learned from our market research and combined it with the best technical expertise available at the one of the foremost internet security research centers, the CERT Coordination Center located at Carnegie Mellon University, to create what we think is a unique document in this field,” said Larry Clinton, ISAlliance’s Chief Operating Officer. Clinton served as one of the co-authors of "The Common Sense Guide to Cyber Security for Small Businesses," along with Carol Woody of CERT.

“Small businesses want concrete examples of what can happen to them and specific steps as to how to prevent damage in a cost-effective fashion,” Clinton added. “What this book provides is a series of actual case studies of how cyber events have affected real small businesses and then gives a specific 12-step program for how to address these events. It deals specifically with the costs and degree of technical know how involved in each step and provides advise to companies who do not have that expertise in-house.”

The ISAlliance plans to announce further products associated with "The Common Sense Guide to Cyber Security for Small Businesses," shortly.

About the ISAlliance: Created to provide a forum for information-sharing and leadership on information securityissues, the Internet Security Alliance is a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, its CERT® Coordination Center (CERT/CC), and the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), a federation of high-tech and electronics trade associations.

Contact: Larry Clinton/703-907-7028