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The original press release is on our web site, along with several other
announcements about us.
Originally, our work was almost exclusively incident response. Since
then, we have worked to help start other incident response teams, coordinate
the efforts of teams when responding to large-scale incidents, provide
training to incident response professionals, and research the causes of
security vulnerabilities, prevention of vulnerabilities, system security
improvement, and survivability of large-scale networks.
In April 2000, Carnegie Mellon University established the Carnegie Mellon
Institute for Survivable Systems (CMISS). As a member of the CMISS team,
the CERT/CC joins other experts at the university in solving network security
and survivability problems.
PRESS
April 2000
CERT® Coordination Center Honored
Named "Best Security Idea or Practice" by SC Magazine
The CERT® Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie Mellon University's
Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has been named the "best security
idea or practice" of 1999 by SC Magazine, formerly Secure Computing.
SC Magazine is the largest information security magazine in the world
and has been in print for more than 10 years. Published monthly, it has
a global circulation of over 100,000 and is recognized for its outstanding
technical reviews and its comprehensive coverage of the information security
marketplace.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) chartered the CERT/CC at the SEI,
a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the DoD,
in 1988 after the release of a "worm program" caused an explosion of copies
of itself to be written at computers around the Internet. This program
resulted in the shutdown of about 10 percent of computers connected to
the Internet nationwide. This computer security incident, the first to
make headline news, led to the creation of the CERT/CC, whose charter was
to work with the Internet community to respond to computer security problems,
raise awareness of computer security issues, and prevent security breaches.
Since then, the CERT/CC has made major contributions to ensuring the integrity
and survivability of the networks that are increasingly critical to our
nation's defense and prosperity.
The CERT/CC handled more than 8500 separate computer security incidents
in 1999 and played a key role in informing the public and containing the
damage from incidents such as the Melissa virus, the ExploreZip worm, and
the use of automated tools for launching distributed denial-of-service
attacks on Web sites. SC Magazine acknowledged the CERT/CC's important
role at its fourth annual awards banquet in London on April 11, 2000, attended
by 450 people. General Manager Robert Vendrano of Hewlett-Packard, principal
sponsor of the awards, presented Thomas A. Longstaff, director of research
and development for the CERT/CC, with a Judges Award, which is selected
through participation by an academy of worldwide information technology
(IT) professionals. Associate sponsors of the awards were Axent Technologies,
Inc., Bullsoft, Cisco Systems, F-Secure, KPMG, Marconi Infosec, Network
Associates, Panda Software, Symantec Corporation, and Trend Micro.
In his introductory remarks before presenting the award, Mr. Vendrano
said, "One of the things that is essential in any security situation is
intelligence" and what I mean by that is an intelligence agency. Someone
who will give you information on the threats that are out there and the
vulnerabilities you face. [The CERT/CC] provides valuable security information
free to anyone...it is a beacon to the rest of the information security
world."
December 1998
Carnegie Mellon's CERT® Coordination Center Marks
Decade of Leadership in Computer Security
PITTSBURGH--The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie Mellon
University's Software Engineering Institute this month marks its 10th year
as the nation's leading center focused on insuring the integrity and survivability
of computer networks.
The CERT/CC was chartered on Dec. 7, 1988 by the U.S. Department of
Defense. The catalyst for the development of the CERT/CC a decade ago was
a "worm program" written by a college student that caused an explosion
of copies of itself to be written at computers around the Internet. This
program resulted in the shutdown of about 10 percent of computers connected
to the Internet nationwide. This computer security incident, the first
to make headline news, led to the creation of the CERT/CC, whose charter
was to work with the Internet community to respond to computer security
problems, raise awareness of computer security issues and prevent security
breaches.
The need for the CERT/CC has grown with the rapid development of the
Internet as the government and U.S. commerce become increasingly dependent
on networked systems. The CERT/CC has been faced with growing challenges
in combating network break-ins, including more sophisticated intruder techniques,
increased damage, difficulty in detecting attacks and increased difficulty
in catching attackers.
In its first year of operation, the CERT/CC responded to six incidents.
In 1997, the center responded to 2,134 incidents, and in the first three
quarters of 1998 it has responded to 2,497 incidents. The CERT/CC has grown
from three staff members in 1988 to 50 this year, with an expanded program
that now includes security improvement and research.
12/13/88
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.
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