(CERT) An organisation formed by DARPA in November 1988 in response to the needs exhibited during the Internet worm incident. The CERT charter is to work with the Internet community to facilitate its response to computer security events involving Internet hosts, to take proactive steps to raise the community' s awareness of computer security issues and to conduct research targeted at improving the security of existing systems. CERT products and services include 24-hour technical assistance for responding to computer security incidents, product vulnerability assistance, technical documents and tutorials. . E-mail: (incident reports). Telephone +1 (412) 268 7090 (24-hour hotline). (2000-07-09)