Australia's AARNet has joined the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre, the UK's Jisc, and the US's OmniSOC and Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center in a a global threat intelligence sharing partnership.

The partnership uses the open-source MISP threat intelligence platform.

MISP's automated warning system means the partner organisations can inform each other of attacks in real time, giving them an opportunity to take preventative steps or at least mitigate the attacks.

AARNet chief information security officer Charles Sterner said "AARNet has been an active driver of security uplift initiatives for the research and education sector in recent years, spearheaded by the development of our security operations centre for Australian universities.

"We see AARNet playing a key role in creating opportunities for people and groups with common challenges, both in Australia and globally, to achieve far better outcomes by collaborating than they would alone. This threat sharing agreement goes to the core of that vision and creates a base for building much larger collaborations focused on securing the sector."

The Australian end of the partnership is being supported by the Commonwealth Government's AustCyber projects fund.

AustCyber funding is also being used to help AARNet strengthen its security capabilities through partnerships with Australian entities aligned to threat sharing and associated cyber activities.