The CERT/CC was chartered on Dec. 7, 1988 by the U.S. Department of Defense. The catalyst for the development of the CERT/CC a decade ago was a "worm program" written by a college student that caused an explosion of copies of itself to be written at computers around the Internet. This program resulted in the shutdown of about 10 percent of computers connected to the Internet nationwide. This computer security incident, the first to make headline news, led to the creation of the CERT/CC, whose charter was to work with the Internet community to respond to computer security problems, raise awareness of computer security issues and prevent security breaches.

The need for the CERT/CC has grown with the rapid development of the Internet as the government and U.S. commerce become increasingly dependent on networked systems. The CERT/CC has been faced with growing challenges in combating network break-ins, including more sophisticated intruder techniques, increased damage, difficulty in detecting attacks and increased difficulty in catching attackers.

In its first year of operation, the CERT/CC responded to six incidents. In 1997, the center responded to 2,134 incidents, and in the first three quarters of 1998 it has responded to 2,497 incidents. The CERT/CC has grown from three staff members in 1988 to 50 this year, with an expanded program that now includes security improvement and research.