CERT

CERT is an organization devoted to: 1) ensuring that appropriate technology and systems management practices are used to resist attacks on networked computer systems; and 2) limiting damage to and ensuring continuity of critical services in the face of successful attacks, accidents or failures. A primary CERT objective is to analyze the state of Internet security and convey that information to system administrators, network managers and users in the Internet community.

CERT is located at the Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center operated by Carnegie Mellon University. Although its name originally stood for Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT is now a name and registered service mark, rather than an acronym. The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC), established in November 1988, was the first computer security incident response team.

CERT’s mission is to:

• Provide a reliable, trusted, 24-hour, single point of contact for emergencies.
• Facilitate communication among experts working to solve security problems.
• Serve as a central point for identifying and correcting vulnerabilities in computer systems.
• Maintain close ties with research activities and conduct research to improve the security of existing systems.
• Initiate proactive measures to increase awareness and understanding of information security and computer security issues throughout the community of network users and service providers.

CERT has the following areas of work:

• Vulnerability and incident analysis
• Survivable enterprise management
• Education and training
• Survivable systems engineering
• Network situational awareness