ecd@SEI.CMU.EDU (10/19/89)
12/13/88
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DARPA ESTABLISHES COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced today
that it has established a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to
address computer security concerns of research users of the InterNet,
which includes ARPANET. The Coordination Center for the CERT is located
at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA.
In providing direct service to the InterNet community, the CERT will
focus on the special needs of the research community and serve as a
prototype for similar operations in other computer communities. The
National Computer Security Center and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology will have a leading role in coordinating the creation
of these emergency response activities.
The CERT is intended to respond to computer security threats such as the
recent self-replicating computer program ("computer virus") that invaded
many defense and research computers.
The CERT will assist the research network communities in responding to
emergency situations. It will have the capability to rapidly establish
communications with experts working to solve the problems, with the
affected computer users and with government authorities as appropriate.
Specific responses will be taken in accordance with DARPA policies.
It will also serve as a focal point for the research community for
identification and repair of security vulnerabilities, informal
assessment of existing systems in the research community, improvement
to emergency response capability, and user security awareness. An
important element of this function is the development of a network of
key points of contact, including technical experts, site managers,
government action officers, industry contacts, executive-level decision
makers and investigative agencies, where appropriate.
Because of the many network, computer, and systems architectures and
their associated vulnerabilities, no single organization can be
expected to maintain an in-house expertise to respond on its own to
computer security threats, particularly those that arise in the
research community. As with biological viruses, the solutions must
come from an organized community response of experts. The role of
the CERT Coordination Center at the SEI is to provide the supporting
mechanisms and to coordinate the activities of experts in DARPA and
associated communities.
The SEI has close ties to the Department of Defense, to defense and
commercial industry, and to the research community. These ties place
the SEI in a unique position to provide coordination support to the
software experts in research laboratories and in industry who will
be responding in emergencies and to the communities of potentially
affected users.
The SEI is a federally-funded research and development center, operating
under DARPA sponsorship with the Air Force Systems Command (Electronic
Systems Division) serving as executive agent. Its goal is to accelerate
the transition of software technology to defense systems. Computer
security is primarily a software problem, and the presence of CERT
at the SEI will enhance the technology transfer mission of the SEI
in security-related areas.
END