They were. But times have changed and lots of organisations that have or refer to "Unix" in their name are now no longer focused only on that operating system.

OK. (Proves that I haven't been doing my homework. ;-)

I'd suggest you visit one of the conferences of the mentioned organisations. Then you'll see that they cover a broad range of issues outside those related to Unix alone.

I would, if there was time and money ...

Computing by itself doesn't bring much risk. Computing with broken or "contaminated" software brings risks. Even more so does networking, since it's the ideal "carrier" for all risks related to computers in general. So the organisation really should be closely related to networking, or in close contact with an an organisation related to networking.

Definitely, but we mustn't forget the thousands of stand-alone PC:s that only have foot-net. Diskettes are just as bad. We must also bear in mind the large non-connected multi-user systems, where local cracking can be just as painful as network cracking (although it's less common these days - agreed). Best regards, /Liman

Dear colleagues, In the DANTE CERT discussion I've seen a point being made about a possible FIRST Europe which I feel a need to clarify, thereby amplifying Wilfried's reaction to the subject: Harald wrote:

... - The Concert-in-E proposal should be pursued, but the result might be more of a consultation forum (FIRST-Europe?) rather than an operational service (CERT-Europe). ...

We - meaning European CERT folks, in growing numbers - have been debating this issue since mid 1993, and the outcome invariably was the following: We do NOT need a European version of FIRST. Why? Simple. FIRST is the worldwide CLUB of CERT's. No less, no more. They do administrative work, gather information on the teams, provide for an annual meeting, stimulate coordination between teams and that's about it. What for earth sake would we need a European version of the FIRST I just described for? FIRST is NOT involved in real-time incident handling, that is solely done by the member teams of FIRST. And the de facto nucleus of THAT activity, incident handling, is CERT/CC. Now it has become clear of late that CERT/CC can nor will assume that role for Europe indefinitely. That leaves two options. Either all of European CERT's - a rapidly growing number! - start interacting with each other and the rest of the world on the basis of many many bilateral relationships; or we create a European parallel to CERT/CC to solve that problem. Most of us - in my understanding - agreed we need the latter, and that is what EuroCERT, NICE, Concert-in-E and DANTE CERT were and are all about. There are differences of opinion though on mainly two items. One is timescale: do we need this NOW, or only somewhere in 1996? And the other is how to get there: who will organize it, who will pay for it and who will be doing the job. The DANTE CERT discussion falls into this category. Kind regards, Don Stikvoort CERT-NL PS: The recent meeting of European CERT's in Hamburg was, like its predecessor in Amsterdam the year before, NOT a European imitation of FIRST, but an ADDITION to what FIRST is doing. Travel costs to the USA is one reason for doing this. The other that there are a lot of networks preparing CERT activities in Europe who like to know about their neighbours and about FIRST. We specifically use the name FSIG-Europe for this contact group - FIRST Special Interest Group Europe - though I must add that this name has no official FIRST rubber stamp (yet).