SEI Press Release

PITTSBURGH—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.”  

For more information about   the SC Magazine awards, see http://www.westcoast.com.  

®CERT and CERT Coordination   Center are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.