Common Malware Enumeration Initiative
US non-profit IT company MITRE today announced the Common Malware Enumeration Initiative. Headed by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and supported by an editorial board of anti-virus vendors and related organizations it should provide a neutral, shared identification method for malware outbreaks.
During a virus outbreak, participants on the CME board request an identifier from an automated system by providing a sample of the virus and as much additional information as possible. An identifier in the format ‘CME-N’ where N is an integer between 1 and 999 is generated and distributed to the other participants. The participants then disseminate the CME identifier to their contacts in the industry and reference the CME identifier on their web pages, in their product, or when speaking to the press.