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. END