Computer emergency response team

A computer emergency response team is a historic term for an expert group that handles computer security incidents. '"CERT"' should not be generically used as an acronym for this term as it is registered as a trademark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as other jurisdictions around the world. Alternative names for such groups include computer emergency readiness team and computer security incident response team (CSIRT).
History.
The name "Computer Emergency Response Team" was first used in 1988 by the CERT Coordination Center (CERT-CC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The term CERT is registered as a trade and service mark by CMU in multiple countries worldwide. CMU encourages the use of Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) as a generic term for the handling of computer security incidents. CMU licenses the CERT mark to various organizations that are performing the activities of a CSIRT.
The history of CERT, and of CSIRTS, is linked to the existence of malware, especially computer worms and viruses. Whenever a new technology arrives, its misuse is not long in following. The first worm in the IBM VNET was covered up. Shortly after, a worm hit the Internet on 3 November 1988, when the so-called Morris Worm paralysed a good percentage of it. This led to the formation of the first computer emergency response team at Carnegie Mellon University under U.S. Government contract. With the massive growth in the use of information and communications technologies over the subsequent years, the generic term 'CSIRT' refers to an essential part of most large organisations' structures. In many organisations the CSIRT evolves into an information security operations center.
Global associations and teams.
FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, is the global association of CSIRTs.