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GCN Home > 09/15/03 web stories

Homeland Security unveils new IT security team

By Gail Repsher Emery and Wilson P. Dizard III, PostNewsweek Tech Media

A new unit in the Homeland Security Department’s National Cyber Security Division will improve the response time to cybersecurity threats, DHS officials said today as they announced the formation of the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team.

“The goal is to share what we know when we know it,” said Frank Libutti, undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection at the department. “U.S. CERT provides a tremendous opportunity to reach out to the business community and the home user.”

In addition, Amit Yoran will become director of the National Cyber Security Division, said Bob Liscouski, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. Yoran is vice president of worldwide managed security services at Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, Calif.

The department will partner with the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University to create U.S. CERT, which will coordinate responses to cyberattacks, as well as work on prevention and protection efforts.

“The recent cyberattacks, such as the Blaster worm and the SoBig virus, highlight the urgent need for an enhanced computer emergency response program that coordinates national efforts to cyberincidents and attacks,” Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge said in a statement.

Carnegie Mellon’s center alerts U.S. industry and computer users worldwide about computer security threats and provides information about how to avoid, minimize and recover from damage. The center has coordinated responses to the recent spat of cybersecurity threats.

The CERT Coordination Center is part of the university’s Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded R&D center run by Carnegie Mellon for the Defense Department.

The partnership with Homeland Security will bring about a single, streamlined center for immediate response, using resources from government, industry and academia, Liscouski said.

“We’ll have one point of contact … to get consistently reliable information,” he said.

Liscouski said U.S. CERT has four objectives:

  • Develop open standards for detection tools
  • Assure a 30-minute response time to cybersecurity threats by the end of next year
  • Improve coordination of warning and response information
  • Enhance detection methods.


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