The Tool Desk
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The former NCSC Connect Inform Share Protect (CISP) platform was decommissioned on 28 November 2025. The NCSC describes Active Cyber Defence 2.0 (ACD 2.0) as the direction for new collaboration models, but no universal successor, open enrolment route or generic eligibility rule has been established in the available official material.
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What a prepared participant can do
Readiness is more than joining a mailing list. Your organisation should be able to decide quickly what it may disclose, send it through an approved channel, preserve the sender’s handling restrictions, route the information to people who can act, and record the result. It should also be able to receive an uncertain or partial report without treating it as proven fact.
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- A written purpose and boundary for the pilot or exchange.
- An executive sponsor and a named person accountable for sharing decisions.
- Legal, privacy, classification and confidentiality rules agreed before the first exchange.
- A rehearsed workflow for intake, validation, clearance, distribution, action and records.
- Measures that show whether participation improved preparation, prevention, detection or response relative to its cost and disclosure risk.
The NCSC’s severe-threat guidance captures the timing issue: “It is important to embed effective threat intelligence sharing now – before a severe cyber incident occurs.”
Is CISP still available?
No. The NCSC Connect Inform Share Protect (CISP) platform was decommissioned on 28 November 2025. Do not build a business case, technical integration or staffing plan on the assumption that CISP membership or its historical operating model remains available.
The NCSC says it is developing new secure collaboration models through Active Cyber Defence 2.0 (ACD 2.0), working with industry, academia and government. Its stated aim is to focus on areas where the NCSC can make a distinctive contribution and to transfer successful new services within three years. Early experiments included attack-surface-management work and invitations for organisations and providers to engage.
Those statements describe programme direction and targeted experiments, not a standing, universally open replacement. The official material available for this guide does not establish a single successor platform, general application form, eligibility criteria or timetable. For a named pilot, obtain the current rules directly from its organiser and record the date on which you confirmed them.
Define the pilot before you seek partners
Write a testable purpose
State the operational problem the arrangement is meant to solve. Examples include improving early warning about a threat affecting your sector, testing whether shared indicators can reduce investigation time, or learning how peer organisations coordinate during a severe incident. Describe the expected benefit in terms that a participant can observe, rather than promising an undefined improvement in “cyber security”.
List the threats, assets, business services and decisions in scope. Say what is explicitly out of scope. A pilot focused on internet-facing exposure discovery has a different data set and response path from one focused on fraud campaigns or ransomware tactics.
Set the exchange boundary
Document whether the arrangement is:
- Bilateral between two organisations or multilateral across a community.
- Sector-specific or cross-sector.
- Limited to the UK or involving organisations in other jurisdictions.
- Primarily technical, such as indicators, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), or also strategic and executive-level assessment.
- A time-limited experiment, a recurring exchange or an incident-triggered channel.
Specify what your organisation can contribute, what it expects to receive, who will consume each information type and how success will be assessed. Clear boundaries let prospective partners judge whether they can contribute and benefit.
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Assign sponsorship and decision rights
Name an executive sponsor
Secure sponsorship from a senior executive or CISO-level owner. Practitioners need authority to release approved information, commit staff time and resolve conflicts with business priorities. Sponsorship should cover both participation and the consequences of acting on information received.
Create an accountable sharing role
Appoint one role to decide whether information may be shared, or to escalate the decision when the answer is unclear. The role can sit in security, risk, legal or another function, but its authority and backup must be explicit. Define who can approve an urgent release outside normal hours.
Map contributors and consumers
Identify the teams that produce or use intelligence, including the security operations centre, threat-intelligence analysts, incident response, vulnerability management, risk, privacy, legal, communications and senior management. For each team, record the information it supplies, the decisions it makes and the service level it can realistically provide.
| Role | Decision or activity to document |
|---|---|
| Executive sponsor | Authorises participation, resources and risk appetite. |
| Sharing decision-maker | Clears outgoing information and handles ambiguous cases. |
| Information owner | Confirms that data may be released under its ownership and contractual constraints. |
| Intelligence or security team | Validates reports, adds context and routes technical material. |
| Operational recipient | Applies checks, controls, hunts or mitigations and records the outcome. |
| Legal, privacy and compliance advisers | Review applicable legal, regulatory, retention, attribution and cross-border requirements. |
| Incident or crisis lead | Uses the expedited process when a severe threat requires rapid action. |
Clear legal, privacy and handling rules first
Involve legal and compliance teams before the first exchange, not after an incident. The exact legal basis and controls depend on your organisation, the data involved, your sector and the programme’s terms.
Questions to settle before sharing
- Could the material contain personal information, customer data, employee data or information that identifies an individual indirectly?
- What retention and deletion rules apply to incoming and outgoing material?
- Does attribution create safety, contractual, reputational or regulatory risk?
- Will information cross a national border, and what transfer controls are required?
- Do sector regulations, contracts, security classifications or intellectual-property terms restrict disclosure?
- Who owns information supplied by a customer, supplier, subsidiary or public authority?
- What confidentiality, non-disclosure or permitted-use terms govern the relationship?
Consult each information owner and obtain approval before releasing its material. Keep evidence of the approval and any conditions attached to it.
Define classification and handling
Create a practical scheme for indicators, TTPs, hunt queries, incident descriptions, vulnerability details and strategic assessments. State who may receive each class, whether it may be forwarded, where it may be stored, how long it may be retained and how corrections or revocations are issued.
Use an agreed handling protocol such as the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) where it fits the programme. A label is not a substitute for a procedure: staff must know how the label changes forwarding, storage, publication and technical use.
Prepare for a severe threat
NCSC guidance for critical national infrastructure recommends establishing governance and legal alignment before a severe incident, assigning accountability for sharing decisions, defining classification rules and preparing guidance for rapid decisions. Build a streamlined clearance route and a contingency plan for sharing partial intelligence when complete information cannot be approved in time.
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Design the end-to-end sharing workflow
Write the workflow as a sequence that a new analyst can follow. Test it with a realistic exercise, including an ambiguous report and an out-of-hours escalation.
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- Receive. Accept information only through channels authorised by the programme, such as a secure portal, trusted encrypted email or a verbal exchange when the rules permit it. Record the sender, time received, stated handling restrictions and any confidence assessment.
- Validate. Check the source, internal consistency, technical indicators and relevance. Mark information that is uncorroborated or uncertain; do not silently upgrade an allegation into a fact.
- Clear. Apply the agreed classification, privacy, contractual and regulatory tests. Obtain information-owner approval where required. Use the urgent route when delay would create material risk.
- Route. Send technical indicators, TTPs and hunt queries to defenders responsible for checks and controls. Send strategic assessment and business impact to the people who make risk and continuity decisions.
- Act. Record the resulting hunt, block, patch, configuration change, monitoring rule, investigation or executive decision. If no action is appropriate, record why.
- Respond. Share your permitted findings, confirmations, corrections or requests for help through the agreed channel. Preserve the original sender’s restrictions when forwarding.
- Review. Log what was received and sent, who handled it, when decisions were made, what action followed and whether the information was useful. Correct or revoke material when its status changes.
Use machine-readable formats where they help
NCSC guidance recommends standardised machine-readable formats for indicators, TTPs and hunt queries where appropriate. Choose formats that your tools and staff can actually process. A structured feed that nobody can validate, enrich or deploy is less useful than a smaller exchange that fits your operating model.
Plan for partial and urgent intelligence
Define what can be shared when only part of a report is cleared. For example, your process might permit a technical indicator without the identifying narrative, provided its handling restrictions and uncertainty are preserved. Set an escalation contact, an approval time window and a method for issuing a correction. Exercise the failure path: unavailable approver, corrupted attachment, conflicting classifications or a partner requesting more detail than you can release.
Choose communities and partners for operational fit
List relevant trust groups, sector communities, peer organisations and possible bilateral partners. Compare them against the work your team can sustain, not just the number of members or the promise of access.
| Option | Likely strengths | Trade-off to test |
|---|---|---|
| Large, multi-sector community | More volume, broader coverage and a wider range of perspectives. | Some reports may be less immediately relevant to your organisation; filtering demands more staff time. |
| Small, sector-focused group | Closer relevance, shared operating context and potentially faster peer discussion. | Narrower reach and a smaller pool of contributors can limit coverage. |
| Bilateral partner exchange | Specific objectives, direct trust relationship and tailored information. | Coverage depends heavily on one partner and may require more coordination per exchange. |
Score the practical criteria
- Sector and geographic fit: Does the group see the threats, jurisdictions and dependencies that matter to you?
- Relevance and specificity: Will information map to your assets, controls and decisions, or require extensive interpretation?
- Variety: Are contributions limited to indicators, or do they include TTPs, context, strategic assessment and lessons learned?
- Trust and reliability: Are handling expectations clear, and do members correct errors promptly?
- Reach and composition: Does the public/private mix support your objective?
- Operational capacity: Can your staff receive, validate and act on the expected flow?
- Technical fit: Can your systems ingest, search, store and deploy the material safely?
NCSC advice encourages organisations to stay aware of relevant threat-intelligence sources and to consider a lower threshold for sharing with partners and within their sector during severe cyber threats, within the organisation’s agreed rules. A lower threshold still requires a defined approval route; it is not permission to bypass governance.
Measure whether participation is worth the effort
Agree measures before launch so the pilot is not judged only by the volume of messages exchanged. Track both benefit and burden.
Useful outcome measures
- Types of information received and the threats or services they concerned.
- Whether recipients took an action, and what kind of action it was.
- Time from receipt to validation, clearance, operational use and feedback.
- Gaps addressed by a contribution, such as visibility of an indicator or context unavailable internally.
- Changes to preparation, prevention, detection or response decisions.
- Quality of incoming information, including corrections, duplicates and material that could not be used.
- Staff hours, system changes and other operating costs required to participate.
- Disclosure, privacy, contractual or reputational risks created and how they were controlled.
Keep enough records to compare the useful outcomes with the disclosure risk and operating cost. Document incoming and outgoing exchanges, including who shared the information and when.
Decide whether EASM belongs in your plan
External attack surface management (EASM) can be relevant when your organisation maintains internet-accessible services, particularly where disruption would affect the business or its customers. NCSC guidance describes EASM products as helping discover internet-accessible assets and identify exposures, misconfigurations or vulnerabilities.
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EASM is an adjacent capability, not a general prerequisite for joining a threat-sharing programme. The NCSC states: “There is no one-size-fits-all for EASM.” Products vary in coverage, features and price, so establish requirements before speaking with providers.
Questions for an EASM assessment
- Which domains, cloud services, certificates, addresses and third-party assets must be discovered?
- How will ownership be confirmed when an asset is found?
- What exposure, configuration and vulnerability insight is needed, and how will findings be prioritised?
- Can results feed existing security operations, vulnerability and incident workflows?
- Are scanning methods, frequency, service limits and support clear?
- What total cost and staffing are required to investigate and remediate findings?
- Does the organisation have the authority and capacity to act on the visibility the service creates?
ACD 2.0 experiments found that automated discovery can improve visibility of an organisation’s online footprint. They also highlighted varied market offerings and the importance of cost. Establish asset ownership and response capacity before selecting a product.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Confirm current programme details with the organiser
Because no specific pilot is named here, treat these as verification tasks rather than assumptions:
- Is the programme currently accepting participants?
- Which organisations, sectors and jurisdictions are eligible?
- What is the application or invitation route, and who is the accountable contact?
- Which platform or transmission methods are approved?
- What membership, confidentiality, handling and liability terms apply?
- What information may be contributed, and what service or response is expected in return?
- What onboarding, technical testing, training and incident-escalation steps are required?
- When will the pilot start, end or be reviewed?
Record the organiser’s answer, the person who provided it and the date. Reconfirm details if the programme changes scope or if a severe threat triggers emergency arrangements.
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- Written purpose, scope, expected benefit and success measures.
- Executive sponsor and named accountable sharing decision-maker.
- Contributors, recipients, approvers and escalation contacts.
- Inventory of information that may be shared, with classification and handling rules.
- Legal and information-owner review covering privacy, retention, attribution, cross-border and regulatory issues that apply to your case.
- Tested intake, validation, clearance, secure transmission, internal distribution, action and recordkeeping workflow.
- Process for uncertain, partial, urgent, corrected and revoked intelligence.
- Comparison of partner communities by relevance, reach, trust and resource demand.
- Evaluation method for usefulness, action taken, time to act and staff effort.
- Current confirmation of availability, eligibility, onboarding, platform and terms from the named organiser.
Common preparation failures and corrections
Planning around the old CISP model
Failure: Treating historical CISP membership, tooling or procedures as a current entry route.
Correction: Start with the organiser’s current status and terms. The platform was decommissioned on 28 November 2025, and no universal successor route has been established in the official material covered here.
Letting analysts decide release authority informally
Failure: Staff hesitate during an incident because nobody owns the decision, or they release information without the owner’s approval.
Correction: Name the decision-maker, deputy and escalation path. Pre-clear common information types and document an urgent route.
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Failure: A broad distribution list creates noise, exposes restricted material or leaves technical teams unsure what to do.
Best Value
Correction: Map information types to recipients and preserve handling restrictions. Separate technical action from strategic assessment.
Measuring activity instead of effect
Failure: Counting messages or members without checking whether anyone acted.
Correction: Record actions, time to use, gaps addressed, corrections and staff effort. Review whether the exchange changed a preparation, prevention, detection or response decision.
Buying visibility without response capacity
Failure: Deploying an EASM service or feed that identifies more exposure than the organisation can own and remediate.
Correction: Define asset ownership, prioritisation and remediation capacity first, then select tools that fit those requirements.
A suggested implementation sequence
First phase: establish authority and scope
Secure sponsorship, define the operational question, identify information owners and list the teams that will contribute or act. Produce the first draft of the sharing inventory and success measures.
Second phase: clear rules and build the workflow
Complete legal, privacy and confidentiality review. Agree classification and handling, choose approved channels, configure records and write the urgent, partial and correction procedures.
Third phase: test with a partner
Run a controlled exchange or tabletop exercise. Test intake, validation, clearance, routing, technical action, executive notification and feedback. Include an unavailable approver and an uncertain report.
Fourth phase: evaluate and adjust
Review usefulness, actions, timing, staff effort and disclosure risk. Change the partner set, information scope or tooling before scaling. Keep the programme owner’s current eligibility and platform confirmation with the decision record.
Historical figures that should not be used as current eligibility data
A 2013 Cabinet Office announcement reported that 80 companies across five business sectors participated in a historical pilot and that the initiative later expanded to 160 firms. These figures describe that 2013 initiative; they are not current membership numbers, an application target or evidence of present-day eligibility.
Quick Recap
| Historical reference | Reported figure | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet Office announcement, 2013 | 80 companies across five business sectors | Historical pilot participation. |
| Later expansion reported in the same historical context | 160 firms | Historical expansion, not current programme size. |
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