Forum of Incident Response & Security Teams/Forum_of_Incident_Response_and_Security_Teams_FIRST_October_1994.iso/teaminfo/first/gen_info/presspkg.txt

Text File | 1994-07-08 | 8KB | 186 lines

United States Department of Commerce
National Institute of Standards and Technology
NEWS


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                           John Henkel
March 19, 1993
                                                 TN-5925


          RESPONSE GROUP FORMED TO HANDLE INTERNATIONAL
             COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY PROBLEMS

      Government and private organizations in North America and
Europe are joining forces to help combat and prevent the world's
escalating computer and network security problems.

      Known as the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams,
or FIRST, the coalition brings together a variety of computer
security incident response teams from the public and private
sectors, as well as from universities.  FIRST aims to foster
cooperation and coordination in incident prevention, to prompt
rapid reaction to incidents, and to promote information sharing
among its members.  FIRST currently includes more than 20 response
teams and liaisons (see attached list of participating
organizations).

      Participation in FIRST is voluntary, and member teams must
fund their own involvement.  One of FIRST's chief goals is to expand
the number of participating incident response teams and to foster
increased cooperation in incident response-related activities.

      In general, a response team is set up to serve a defined
constituency.  In many cases, a team serves a single organization's
computer network users.  Other teams are operated by computer
vendors and deal primarily with their specific operating systems.
Incident response teams generally augment an organization's overall
computer security efforts by focusing on computer security
incidents.

      The FIRST secretariat is responsible for various administrative and
coordination activities.  The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) serves as the secretariat.

      "Computer security vulnerabilities associated with information
technology, such as malicious abuse or viruses, require a rapid, skilled,
and coordinated response to minimize damage," says Dennis Steinauer, who
oversees NIST's participation in FIRST and chairs the FIRST Steering
Committee.  "For a response team to be effective, it must have rapid
communication both within its own constituency and with other incident
response teams.  That's what FIRST aims to accomplish."  FIRST members, he
says, use automatic alerting mechanisms, electronic mail, and a number of
other methods to achieve this rapid communication.

      FIRST is working to achieve several goals:

      o      To boost cooperation among information technology users in
             the effective prevention, detection and recovery from
             computer security incidents;

      o      To provide a means to alert and advise clients on
             potential threats and emerging incident situations;

      o      To support and promote the actions and activities of
             participating incident response teams, including
             research and operational activities; and

      o      To simplify and encourage the sharing of security-related
             information, tools and techniques.

      FIRST membership has grown quickly from 11 original teams to
more than 20.  Although initial membership consisted primarily of
U.S. government organizations, membership of private sector
organizations, universities, and non-U.S. organizations is growing.
Many are finding that FIRST participation offers extensive
information and help in combating and preventing computer security
incidents.  FIRST officials state, however, that members are
expected to participate actively in the forum.  The FIRST
Secretariat can provide information on establishing an incident
response capability and on FIRST membership.

For more information, contact:

                          FIRST Secretariat
                          Attn: Dennis Steinauer
                          National Institute of Standards and
                            Technology
                          A-216 Technology Building
                          Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-0001
                          Phone [phone]
                          Electronic Mail: [e-mail]

------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams
                                   (FIRST)

                              Members & Liaisons


Team Name                           Sponsoring Organization/Press Contact
---------                           -------------------------------------
Air Force Computer Emergency        U.S. Air Force Cryptologic Support
Response Team (AFCERT)              Center

CCTA Response Team                  The Government Centre for Information
                                    Systems, United Kingdom, Paul Swift
                                    44-603-694720

CERT Coordination Center (CERT)     Defense Advanced Research Projects
                                Agency (DARPA), Software Engineering
                                    Institute, Carnegie Mellon University,
                    Terry McGillin [phone]

Defense Information Systems         Defense Information Systems
Agency/Defense Data Network         Agency/Defense Data Network
(DISA/DDN) Response Team            (DISA/DDN) Agency

Department of Defense Security      Department of Defense, Mike Higgins
Incident Response Center (DSIRC)    [phone]

Department of Energy's              Department of Energy,
Computer Incident Advisory          Lawrence Livermore National
Capability (DoE's CIAC)             Laboratory, Steve Mick [phone]

DEC's Software Security             Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC),
Response Team (SSRT)                [phone] request SSRT Team

Goddard Space Flight Center         NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Response Team

Micro-BIT Virus Center (MVC)        University of Karlsruhe, Germany

Motorola Computer Emergency         Motorola, John Kinyon [phone]
Response Team

NASA Ames Research Center           NASA Ames Research Center, Peter Yee
Computer Network Security           [phone]
Response Team
(NASA ARC CNSRT)

Naval Computer Incident             U.S. Department of the Navy,
Response Team (NAVCIRT)             LT Ted Wackler [phone]

NIST Computer Security              National Institute of Standards and
Resource Center (NIST/CSRC)         Technology, John Henkel [phone]

NORDUnet                            NORDUnet

Purdue Computer Emergency           Purdue University, Amanda Siegfried
Response Team (PCERT)               [phone]

SPAN-France Response Team           Space Physics Analysis Network, France

Sprint Data Network Security        U.S. Sprint, Pat Sisson [phone]
Unit (Sprint DNSU)

Sun Microsystems' Customer          Sun Microsystems, Inc., Kenneth Pon
Warning System (CWS)            [phone]

SURFnet Computer Emergency          SURFnet, the Netherlands, Erik-Jan Bos
Response Team (CERT-NL)             31-30-310290 (utc+0100)

TRW Computer Emergency              TRW, Marc Zorn [phone]
Response Committee for
Unclassified Systems (CERCUS)

Unisys CERT                         Unisys Corporation



Liaison Organizations
---------------------
Defence Research Agency, Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE),
Clive Walmsley 44-684-895425

DOW USA

Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

Pennsylvania State University, Joe Lambert [phone]

Westinghouse Electric Corporation