CSIRT stands for Computer Security Incident Response Team.
Whenever a new technology arrives, its misuse is not long in following. For the entity that was to become the Internet, this happened on the 3 November1988, when the so-called Morris Worm paralysed a good percentage of it. This led to the formation of the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University under U.S. Government contract. Technology (Gr. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Morris worm or Internet worm was one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet; it is considered the first worm virus and was certainly the first to gain significant mainstream media attention. ... Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... The government of the United States, established by the United States Constitution, is a federal republic of 50 states, a few territories and some protectorates. ...
With the massive growth in the use of Information and Communications Technologies over the subsequent years, the now-generic term 'CSIRT' refers to an essential part of most large organisations' structures.
CSIRTs may also have familiarity with the compromised systems and therefore be more readily able to coordinate the recovery and propose mitigation and response strategies.
A CSIRT is similar to a fire department.
CSIRTs can receive funding from their parent organization, either directly or as part of an IT department (e.g., a CSIRT formed from existing staff members of a commercial organization, a university, a government/military organization).
Any group calling itself a CSIRT for a specific constituency must therefore react to reported security incidents, and to threats to "their" constituency in ways which the specific community agrees to be in its general interest.
A CSIRT may or may not have the authority to intervene in the operation of all of the systems within its perimeter.
CSIRTs and users of the template should be sensitive to local laws and regulations, which may vary considerably in different countries.