To reduce the confusion caused by the different names security companies give worms, viruses and other pests, the U.S Computer Emergency Readiness Team next month plans to take the wraps off the Common Malware Enumeration initiative.

The project assigns a unique identifier to a particular piece of malicious software. When included in security software, alerts and virus encyclopedia entries, this identifier should help people determine which pest is hitting their systems and whether they are protected, the initiative’s backers said. (more…)