Cyberattacks Emergency Team to Protect Strategic Russian Facilities

Russia's Kaspersky Lab software security group has created a computer emergency readiness team (CERT) to counter attacks on strategic Russian facilities, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — CERT is due to start operations in October and will collect information on cybersecurity attacks, vulnerabilities, threats and conduct reviews and tests on nuclear power plants, oil refineries, defense enterprises, steel mills, chemical and other important industrial facilities, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing a source in the IT industry.

According to the news outlet, the information was confirmed by Kaspersky Lab.

"The organization of industrial CERT is our exclusive initiative. Currently we are working with industrial and state regulators and organizations responsible for cybersecurity in Russia and beyond," Eugene Goncharov, the head of the company's competence center for the protection of critical infrastructure, told the newspaper.

Kaspersky Lab plans to obtain certification from Carnegie Mellon University to use the CERT trade mark and obtain an international status for Russia's Computer Emergency Readiness Team, the company revealed to the media outlet.

The name Computer Emergency Response Team was first used by the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Such teams comprise experts dealing with computer security incidents.