Shared system will combat cyberattacks

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ATLANTA, May 24 (UPI) -- A new threat intelligence system will help corporate and government security officials share information to fight cyberattacks, U.S. researchers say.

Scientists at Georgia Tech say their malware intelligence system will be vital as threats expand into new domains and increasingly focus on industrial espionage.

Dubbed Titan, the system will anchor a security community creating "safety in numbers," as companies large and small add their threat data to a knowledge base that will be shared with all participants, a Georgia Tech release said Wednesday.

Operated by the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the system will build on a threat analysis foundation that includes a malware repository that analyzes and classifies an average of 100,000 pieces of malicious code each day, researchers said.

"As a university, Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to take this white hat role in between industry and government," GTRI research scientist Andrew Howard said. "We want to bring communities together to break down the walls between industry and government to provide a trusted, sharing platform.

"You may not be able to completely prevent an attack, but you can have a higher wall and stronger defense," Howard said. "Hackers tend to go after the low-hanging fruit, so they will attack the companies that are the easiest to attack. We believe that our community can help all the members strengthen their defenses."