The 31st Annual FIRST Conference is coming back to Europe, taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland, next June 16-21, 2019. FIRST brings together security and incident response professionals at all stages of their careers, from public, private and education sectors around the world to exchange information and ideas, learn together, build trust relationships and co-operate on areas of mutual interest. We are looking for engaging speakers to present on the latest Incident Response and Information Security topics and ideas, to strengthen our individual and collective ability to prevent and respond to computer security incidents.
Presenters of workshops and presentations of duration 20 minutes or more will receive a complimentary conference admission (1 per presentation/workshop). FIRST does not contribute to travel, accommodation or other expenses.
With the conference theme, “Defending the Castle”, we invite submissions on the following broad topics:
We are looking for ideas, developments or experiences that can be applied to advance the state of security and incident response practice. Ideas that can be implemented by other teams - without requiring proprietary information or software - are particularly welcome. We hope this list helps you think of work you or your team members can present. We are not looking for introductory presentations, for example on the need for incident response or the use of common tools.
We do not allow presentations with the aim of gaining the audience’s interest in any commercial application, solution or product. In other words, NO SALES OR MARKETING PRESENTATIONS!
The conference will comprise four parallel tracks, to provide a range of different styles of learning and different levels of technical/management content. This year we also hope to include a selection of academic research papers, with the option to submit papers to the ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP) journal (see below). Submissions should indicate whether their content is best described as technical, management or academic; also whether journal publication would be of interest.
Submissions should propose one of the following formats (note that the Program Committee may contact you to suggest a different format for a talk or session:
Journal Submission: Speakers at the FIRST conference are invited to submit an article to the ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP) journal. This peer-reviewed journal targets the prevention, identification, mitigation, and elimination of digital threats. DTRAP promotes the foundational development of scientific rigor in digital security by bridging the gap between academic research and industry practice. With enough submissions passing peer-review, a special issue will be published on the FIRST conference, otherwise submissions will go through the regular publication process.
The language of the Annual Conference is English. Note, however, that English is not the first language of all participants, so please try to avoid jargon.
All submissions are reviewed by an international Program Committee, composed of experts and practitioners representing a diverse set of teams and organisations. These are responsible for selecting the best and most relevant papers to make up the conference Program. FIRST does not require you to submit a formal paper for consideration. However your submission must at least let the reviewers understand:
You must provide a detailed outline (at least 10 lines) and an abstract (no more than 100 words) to explain what the talk is about in a way that makes people interested in hearing it.
You are welcome to include additional materials to support any of these points. We are planning to use anonymous reviewing, so do not assume that reviewers have heard your previous thoughts, discussions or presentations. Submissions must be complete by the closing date (see “Important Dates” below) or they will be rejected. You are therefore encouraged to submit two weeks earlier, to give us time to check and let you know if you have not provided sufficient information for the reviewers to assess.
FIRST requires a non-exclusive copyright license for all materials delivered at the Conference. Where employer, client or government authorization is needed, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain that authorization prior to submitting the final materials. Accepted submissions will be published in the Conference Proceedings with associated speaker biographies and head shots (if applicable), for which the same usage rights are required by FIRST.
NOTE: FIRST 2019 is an open conference, which welcomes non-members, press and social media coverage. After the Conference, presentation materials will be made available on the public area of the FIRST website. If your presentation will be sensitive in nature and would require special handling, you must indicate this in your initial submission (TLP: GREEN or AMBER) and by email to the Program Committee Chair.
If you have any questions about the Conference submission process or need additional information, please contact the Program Chair, Andrew Cormack at first-2019chair@first.org. On behalf of the Program Committee and the Conference Planning Team, we are creating a compelling program for you and look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh!
Sincerely,
Andrew Cormack
FIRST Program Chair, 2019
first-2019chair@first.org