APCERT (Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team) is a coalition of the forum of CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams) from 12 economies across the Asia Pacific region.

JPCERT/CC is playing a major role in the activity of APCERT by providing a secretariat function for the organization, funding and organizing an annual conference, and actively involved in the working groups. In addition, JPCERT/CC helps promote APCERT by representing at international conferences and coordinating with other regional and global security related organizations. Moreover, JPCERT/CC maintains the website and contents for APCERT.

The objectives of APCERT are to:

• - Enhance regional and international cooperation on information security in Asia,
• - Jointly develop measures to deal with large-scale or regional network security incidents,
• - Facilitate technology transfer and sharing of information about security, computer virus and malicious code, among its members,
• - Promote collaborative research and development on subjects of interest to its members,
• - Assist other CSIRTs in the region to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of computer emergency responses,
• - Provide inputs and/or recommendations to help address legal issues related to information security and emergency response across regional boundaries.
• - Organize an annual conference to raise awareness on computer security incident response and trends.

Formation of CSIRTs at organizational, national, and regional levels is essential to respond to computer security incidents effectively and efficiently. Also, inter and intra-regional coordination among the CSIRTs is critical for minimizing the damages caused by security incidents as the incidents nowadays spread globally in a matter of few hours.

To encourage these activities, JPCERT/CC provides assistance to APCERT by funding and organizing an annual conference for CSIRTs and other computer security professionals dealing with security incidents. The conference is called APSIRC (Asia Pacific Security Incident Response Coordination Conference) and was first held in 2002. The next APSIRC will be held on 23-25 February 2004 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Participants at APSIRC share information about security incidents and trends and try to find solutions to common problems. (see http://www.apcert.org/)