Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: U.S. will not challenge TruSTAR cyber intelligence data-sharing platform, (Oct 3, 2014)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division does not intend to challenge CyberPoint International LLC’s proposed cyber intelligence data-sharing platform, known as TruSTAR. The platform provides members with the ability to share threat, incident, and attack information and data, as well as remediation solutions for creating better strategies to prevent cyber-attacks, the Justice Department announced today. The government’s position was stated in a business review letter to CyberPoint’s counsel.

CyberPoint is a company that provides security products, services, and solutions to commercial and government customers. Its TruSTAR platform was designed to collect incident reports that include specific and highly technical cyber-threat information, including current attack actors, targets of attack, contextual information regarding threats, and remediation solutions. The platform also allows members to submit incident reports with complete anonymity, and provides members with a forum to anonymously collaborate to respond to cyber threats.

“The ability of competitors to exchange competitively sensitive information, either through the TruSTAR platform itself or the collaboration forum, could raise antitrust concerns under the rule of reason,” Baer noted. However, “[b]ecause CyberPoint has taken steps to ensure that competitively sensitive information won’t be exchanged, we believe that competitive harm is unlikely. Additionally, consumers may benefit from the TruSTAR platform to the extent it provides members a more efficient means of securing networks and information and reducing cyber-security costs.” Consequently, Baer concluded that the Department has “no present intention to challenge the operation of the TruSTAR platform under the antitrust laws.”

It was noted that the program will operate within the framework set forth in the recent Justice Department/FTC Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity Information.

Companies: CyberPoint International LLC

News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews