[Infowarrior] - US-CERT Moves in With NCC, NCSC

[Richard Forno]

US-CERT Moves in With NCC, NCSC
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service - Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:30AM EDT

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20091030/tc_pcworld/uscertmovesinwithnccncsc

The group responsible for coordinating U.S. responses to cyber threats  
is getting new digs.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano will  
cut the ribbon Friday at a new "unified operations center" in  
Arlington, Virginia, that will be home to the U.S. Computer Emergency  
Readiness Team (US-CERT). It will also house the National Coordinating  
Center for Telecommunications (NCC), and the National Cyber Security  
Center (NCSC), which coordinates between three-letter government  
agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau  
of Investigation.

The NCC monitors threats to the telecommunications system and  
coordinates its restoration in the event of an attack or a natural  
disaster.

The three groups are being moved into one operations center in order  
to improve communications between the units, said Amy.Kudwa, a  
spokeswoman with the DHS. "The model of connecting the dots and  
sharing information and physically co-locating has been one of the  
most important lessons learned since 9/11," she said. "This is a  
similar model of collecting experts who are working on different  
aspects of a larger issue."

The move is not a merger, however, Kudra added, saying that the agency  
management structures will remain intact.

DHS is ending its National Cybersecurity Awareness Month with the  
ribbon-cutting ceremony.

US-CERT, which works with both the private sector and the federal  
government to coordinate response to computer-based attacks, is  
looking for new management these days. Its last director, Mischel Kwon  
left to join EMC's RSA division in August.