Prague, 16 December 2010 – Czech Interior Minister Radek John and Ondřej Filip, Executive Director of the CZ.NIC Association, signed a memorandum establishing that the administrator of the Czech national domain will be responsible for the agenda of the CSIRT.CZ (Computer Security Incident Response Teams) national security team starting January of next year.

CSIRT.CZ was a research task and part of a wider project for analysing cybernetic threats that was carried out by the CESNET association. The project ends on 31 December 2010. On 1 January 2011, according to the agreement between the cybernetic threats department of the Ministry of the Interior, the CESNET association and CZ.NIC, the project will be assumed by the administrator of the Czech national domain.

“The fact that the continuity of the operation of CSRIT.CZ for the coming period will be maintained is good news, not only for the Czech internet community. I believe this project will be very helpful in increasing security in this country. Credit belongs in particular to Aleš Špidla, director of the cybernetic security department of the Ministry of the Interior and people at the CESNET association who built the CSIRT.CZ team and successfully ran it for three years. And naturally I should also mention the help of the CSIRT.CZ working group,” said Ondřej Filip, Executive Director of CZ.NIC, after signing the memorandum.

CSIRT.CZ as a national team helps in resolving incidents related to cybernetic security in the networks operated in the Czech Republic. It especially provides coordination help, collects and evaluates data about reported incidents and passes those incidents to people responsible for the operation of the network or service where the incident occurred.

CSIRT.CZ will also take over the role of the national PoC (Point of Contact) in the field of information technology and will be the centre for education and the promotion of cybernetic safety. The security department will make cooperation on the national and international level easier and will help in establishing similar security teams in networks operated in the Czech Republic, providing support in establishing cooperation partnerships with international security entities.

“In security of domains and the internet, CZ.NIC is a seasoned player, both on the national and international level. Since 2008 we have been operating our own CZ.NIC-CSIRT security team, which has been a member of the international security team network since its founding. Since September 2010 it also has the status of an accredited team in the Trusted Introducer association operating within the European TERENA organisation,” added Martin Peterka, who leads the CSIRT.CZ project in CZ.NIC.

Updated on 1 April 2012:
As of 1 April 2012, the memorandum with the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic has been superseded by a new memorandum arranged with the National Security Authority. The NSA has been in charge of the issues of cyber-security since October 2011.

About CSIRT teams

The term CSIRT is generally used for a security team established by individual organisations for their own needs. This team is then responsible for resolving security incidents in its field of competence defined by the organisation, typically in a specific network, AS or, for example, a domain. The teams also have an informal hierarchy. Above the teams of individual organisations, there are CSIRT teams, either national or governmental, who do not have executive power (i.e. to rectify a problem through direct intervention), but have a coordination and education role. The national CSIRT team in the Czech Republic is CSIRT.CZ.