FICO, Chamber of Commerce release tool to score businesses on cybersecurity

FICO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a new tool Thursday to score how strong businesses’ protections are when it comes to cybersecurity.

The tool, called the Assessment of Business Cybersecurity (ABC), uses an algorithm known as the FICO Cyber Risk Score to determine how secure a business or business sector is.

The algorithm considers factors like the health of a company’s network infrastructure and the scope of their internet-exposed systems to reach a score, similar to a credit score.

{mosads}“Businesses are on the front line of cybersecurity threats. Their risk impacts our economy’s health and our national security,” Christopher D. Roberti, senior vice president for cyber intelligence and security policy for U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.

“That’s why we are pleased to partner with FICO to ensure businesses know their level of security. Organizations can obtain their Cyber Risk Score and use the ABC to measure their risk, know the risk of their sector, and take steps to improve their risk posture.”

The tool scored businesses across 10 sectors, including health care, business services and retail and consumer services.

The media, telecom and technology sector had the lowest score at 619, while construction had the highest mark at 764. The overall score across all sectors for the fourth quarter of 2018 is 687.

The tool arrives after lawmakers stepped up their calls for businesses to do more to keep user data secure in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, during which the private information of roughly 50 million Facebook users was improperly shared. Similar concerns were raised after the massive Equifax data breach last year.