Sri Lanka CERT joins APCERT to mitigate cyber threats

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team | Coordinating Centre (Sri Lanka CERT|CC) coordinated with  the Asia Pacific Computer Security Incident Response Team (APCERT) recently for mitigating cyber threats.

This global coordination exercise took place when APCERT successfully completed its annual drill to test the response capability of leading Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) from Asia Pacific economies.  A noteworthy specialty of this year’s annual drill was that for the first time, APCERT involved the participation of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT).  This was in consequence of a Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration signed in September, 2011.

The theme of the APCERT Drill 2012 was ‘Advance Persistent Threats and Global Coordination.’  The objective was for participating teams to exercise incident response handling arrangements locally and internationally to mitigate the impact of advance persistent threats. The drill targeted such threats that involved large scale malicious software propagation and attacks capable of impairing the critical infrastructure and economic activities. In the process this exercise reflected the strong collaboration among the economies. Furthermore, it enhanced the communication protocols, technical capabilities and quality of incident responses for assuring Internet security and safety.

Twenty-two CSIRT teams from 17 economies of APCERT and three teams from OIC-CERT participated in the drill. These economies of APCERT comprised Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, People’s Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.  The economies of OIC-CERT that participated in the drill through their CSIRT teams were Tunisia, Egypt and Pakistan.

Sri Lanka CERT|CC, which was the lead organiser of the annual drill in 2011, too participated in this much sought after exercise this year as well.

APCERT was established by leading and national CSIRTs from the economies of the Asia Pacific region to improve cooperation, response and information sharing among CSIRTs in the region. APCERT consists of 28 CSIRTs from 19 economies.  Further information about APCERT can be found on www.apcert.org.

OIC-CERT was set up in June 2005.  It aims to provide a platform for member countries to explore and develop collaborative initiatives and possible partnerships in matters pertaining to cyber security. These initiatives and partnerships shall be such that they will strengthen the member countries’ self reliance in the cyberspace. OIC-CERT consists of 22 CERTs and cyber security related agencies from 18 economies. Further information about OIC-CERT can be found on  www.oic-cert.net

Formed in 2006, Sri Lanka CERT|CC is a fully owned subsidiary of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. It is a Government entity mandated with the protection of Information and Information Systems within the state sector, while extending its services to the private sector and general public. Its services range from responding to and investigating information security breaches, to preventing security breaches by way of awareness creation, security assessments and security capability building. It is a full member and the national point of contact for both APCERT and the Forum of Incident Response Security Teams (FIRST).  APCERT and FIRST are regional and global associations, respectively, formed to coordinate security efforts between nations. Please visit www.slcert.gov.lk for more information.