Epidemic! part 5
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- Assembling the flu vaccine is an international effort, coordinated by the World Health Organization. [p. 106] Should there be a World Health Organization for malware to coordinate research efforts across countries/vendors? In a sense, that’s one of the reasons StopBadware.org is here, to help address at an international level something that doesn’t really work within borders, but we aren’t currently in a hands-on coordination role. Should we be?
- On a similar note, the Epidemic Intelligence Service (part of the U.S. Public Health Service), in which my father served during Vietnam, was built to be a rapid response team for biological warfare attacks. While it fortunately didn’t have to be used for that purpose, the government did a great job of building an aura of intrigue and excitement around these “medical detectives” and sent them out in teams to help with local public health issues. [p. 120] I guess US-CERT is the cyber security equivalent, but I’m not convinced that the Dept. of Homeland Security, which runs US-CERT, has been as successful in building the team’s reputation or making it a “best of the best” team like the EIS was.
This entry is part of a series. See the introduction for more information.
