Definitions for "Computer Emergency Response Team"
The CERT Coordination Center is the organization that grew from the computer emergency response team formed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in November 1988 in response to the needs identified during the Internet worm incident. The CERT charter is to work with the Internet community to facilitate its response to computer security events involving Internet hosts, to take proactive steps to raise the community's awareness of computer security issues, and to conduct research targeted at improving the security of existing systems.
The CERT was formed by DARPA in November 1988 in response to the needs exhibited during the Internet worm incident, where a program sent out on the Internet by a college student used security loopholes in networked computers to replicate itself, send itself on to other computers, and disable critical flinctions on the affected computers. The CERT charter is to work with the Internet community to facilitate its response to computer security events involving Internet hosts, to take proactive steps to raise the community's awareness of computer security issues, and to conduct research targeted at improving the security of existing systems. CERT products and services include 24-hour technical assistance for responding to computer security incidents, product vulnerability assistance, technical documents, and tutorials. In addition, the team maintains a number of mailing lists (including one for CERT Advisories), and provides an anonymous FTP server at cert.org where security-related documents and tools are archived. The CERT may be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and by telephone at (412)268-7090(24-hour hotline). See also worm. WWWebfx Home Page
Organization that collects and distributes information on computer security incidents and software problems relating to publicly used networks like the Internet.