ISACs and ISAOs play a pivotal role in the cyber threat intelligence landscape by fostering a collaborative environment for sharing critical threat data among member entities. ISACs are typically sector-specific, established under Presidential Decision Directive 63, and consist of critical infrastructure owners and operators who exchange comprehensive sector analysis, best practices, and coordinate security planning and disaster response. ISAOs, on the other hand, were encouraged by Executive Order 13691 and can be organized on various bases such as sector, region, or threat type, with members from both public and private sectors. Both ISACs and ISAOs aim to enhance the collective understanding and mitigation of cyber threats through shared intelligence, which includes indicators of compromise, tactical alerts, and strategic insights into threat actors’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

They also contribute to remedial response by providing actionable information, facilitating rapid dissemination of alerts, and supporting members with incident response and recovery strategies. These organizations help bridge the gap between individual capabilities and collective cyber resilience, enabling members to proactively defend against and respond to cyber incidents more effectively.