U.S. creates cyberalert system
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The system, known as the National Cyber Alert System, will bemaintained and administered by the U.S. national computer emergencyresponse team, or US-CERT, but it relies on the expertise of many securitycompanies, said Amit Yoran, director of National Cyber Security Divisionof the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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The alert system is the United States' first nationally coordinated warning system for Internet threats and vulnerabilities. The system will take information from a variety of public and private sources and issue warnings, bulletins and how-to notifications.
Such cooperation between the government and private industry has been the rallying cry of the security community and federal officials since the Bush Administration began developing the National Strategy to Secure Cyber Space, an effort that was begun a year ago.
While the strategy has been criticized as being soft on an industry keento avoid regulation, several administration officials talked tough at the National Cyber Security Summit inDecember. At that event, officials met with technology industryexperts to form plans in five areas: awareness for home users and small businesses, cybersecurity early warning, corporate governance and security, technical standards, and building better security into software.
As expected, the new alert service kicks off two days after the latest e-mail virus, MyDoom, began spreading. The epidemic underscores the need for a system toalert and inform Internet users. The mass-mailing computer virus tookoff on Monday, spreading faster than any previous virus, securityexperts said this week.
PC users can sign up for the new alert service online by going tothe US-CERT Web site. The site offers four categories of e-mail alerts, twofor nontechnical people and two others for a technical audience.
The technical mailings consist of a biweekly bulletin describing new vulnerabilities and highlighting new patches and workarounds, and a technical alert describing the latest threats. One of the nontechnical alerts for mainstream users describes current threats and gives cybersecurity tips containing how-to information, and the other gives advice for the home and small-business user.
In addition, the site offers ways for PC users and technical experts toreport incidents and vulnerabilities.
Yoran stressed that the alert system is not done.
"This is not the national alert system in its final format," he said."It is very much an iterative process."
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