Re: Hi, we're from the government and we're here to help

[Joe Shaw <jshaw () insync net>]

On 9 Mar 2000, Sean Donelan wrote:

> There is a barely used $50 million center in Washington we can probably buy
> real cheap if folks think we'll ever need an emergency response coordination
> center in the future.

Sounds like something CERT was setup to do.  They were started back in
1988 after the Morris worm to act as an incident response team and
communications center during incidents.  How successful they are has yet
to be seen.  I personally think they take the interests of corporate
entities a lot more seriously than they are concerned about security.

The problem with initiatives that rely on voluntary participation by
organizations is that there are too many "trade secrets," "proprietary
technology" and even some bad blood to get things done.  Some people just
don't want to play nicely.  This is probably the biggest shortcoming of
the Internet and it's potential.  Everyone "cares" about security until
it's time to get their hands dirty and interact with others.

joe