Not too long ago, Gary Kessler and I sat down to chat about the idea that when knowledge is shared widely and broadly within an organization, the organization is better prepared to respond to unexpected events.

One of those unexpected events, of course, is a cyberattack. As networks and computing resources became more pervasive, and as they went from being technical curiosities to strongholds of intelligence, money, and competitive information, they also became targets.

In response, organizations began to appear, charged with creating coordinated defenses against these attacks.

But there’s more to the story, much of it historical, and all of it interesting.