34th Annual FIRST Conference | Neart Le Chéile - Strength Together

Call for Speakers

34th Annual FIRST Conference | Neart Le Chéile - Strength Together

After many months of challenges and disruptions the 34th Annual FIRST Conference will once again be an in-person event and be hosted in Dublin, Ireland. Renowned for being the land of “Céad Míle Fáilte” (100,000 thousand welcomes) Dublin promises to be a great location for our first in-person event in over two years. One of the key lessons we learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we need to work together to make the world a safer and better place. This is equally true in the world of cyber security and hence this year’s theme is based on the old Irish phrase of “neart le chéile” which means Strength Together” and which aligns with the goals of FIRST. With this in mind we are opening the Call for Speakers for presentations, talks, workshops, and conversations around how we as a community can work together in a way to make the Internet a safer, secure, and inclusive environment for all.

Brian Honan, 2022 FIRST Program Chair
Special thanks to our 2022 FIRST Program Committee Volunteers!

Overview

The 34th annual FIRST conference returns to in-person attendance, set to take place in Dublin, Ireland on June 26–July 1, 2022. FIRST brings together security and incident response professionals from all career stages, from public, private, and education sectors around the world to exchange information and ideas, learn together, build trusted relationships, and co-operate in areas of mutual interest. We are seeking 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.

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 language of the annual conference is English.

Suggested Topics

With the conference theme, “Neart Le Chéile: Strength Together”, we invite submissions on the following broad topics:

  • New Attacks – technical, human, supply chain, etc
  • New Defenses – beyond the broken perimeter
  • New Targets – security and incident response for mobile, ICS, IoT, cloud, etc
  • Detecting Marauders – new techniques, data analysis
  • Analyzing Attacks and Intrusions – tools, techniques, analysis, results
  • Building Better Products – product security, secure software development
  • Defenses in Place – skills, maturity, resilience, awareness, communication, etc
  • Defending Others – national CSIRTs, third-party incidents
  • Joining Forces – sharing, collaboration, working with others
  • Sharing Stories – case studies
  • Playing by the Rules – privacy, ethics, norms, governance, standards & best practices

New for 2022

FIRST is eager to encourage representation from new members of the community, those who may not have presented at a major conference before, and those from a diverse background. As such, for the 34th annual FIRST conference, FIRST is introducing a Newcomer Speaker Track. This track is to encourage new talent in our field and those selected for this track will be assigned an experienced speaker to act as a mentor to help them prepare their talk for the conference.

Presentation Styles and Formats

The conference will comprise of four parallel tracks, to provide a range of different styles of learning and different levels of technical/management content. 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:

  • Presentations (35-minutes, inclusive of Q&A): conventional presentation to a theatre audience of up to 300-500.
  • Tutorial/Workshops (90-360 minutes): hands-on practical workshops for a class of up to 50. Must include a statement of any prior knowledge/skills that attendees will be assumed to have (See the additional requirements page for recommended VM/networking configurations).
  • Panels (60-90-minutes, inclusive of Q&A): Must include details of the moderator, suggested duration, and tentative list of panelists

About ACM Digital Threats 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. If accepted and wish to be considered, please indicate your interest in the CFS submission form.

How to Submit

All submissions are reviewed by an international Program Committee, composed of experts and practitioners representing a diverse set of teams and organisations. They 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:

  • What problem is this addressing?
  • How does this help? Who will benefit?
  • Why are you a good person to tell us this?

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.

Submissions must be received no later than December 9, 2021 at 19:00 UTC via the EasyChair submission tool. If you have an existing login to EasyChair, you should be able to login and proceed with the submission process. If this is your first time using EasyChair, you will need to click on the Create a New Account link and follow the process accordingly. Please allow yourself at least 20-minutes per submission and please read the submission instructions for additional tips on what makes for a successful and complete FIRST submission.


The 2022 CFS Has Closed

Speaker Privileges

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.

Speakers provide consent for FIRST to record their presentations in audio and/or visual form and grant FIRST a royalty-free license to use, reproduce, and distribute the recordings and accompanying materials. Speakers also understand that while they retain the rights to their presentation materials (handouts, slides, etc.) and the content of the presentation, FIRST is the sole copyright owner of any recording and can distribute it, along with any supporting materials in any way, with the appropriate attribution of the speakers.

The annual FIRST conference is open to the public, 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 your TLP level during your CFS submission. TLP definitions can be found at https://www.first.org/tlp/.

Professional photographs, audio, and video will be captured during the Conference. Conference Attendees wearing lanyards indicating their approval to be photographed/recorded, grant FIRST and its representatives permission to photograph and/or record them during Conference activities and to use such recordings in support of FIRST’s mission. Uses of records may include, but are not limited to, electronic broadcasting on FIRST’s YouTube Channel, educational initiatives, post-conference reporting, and FIRST’s social media activities.

Important Dates

While FIRST endeavors to follow timelines as closely as possible, please expect slight delays to the following dates:

  • Call for Speakers Opens: November 4, 2021
  • Call for Speakers Closes: December 9, 2021 at 19:00 UTC
  • UPDATED: First Wave of Acceptance Notifications: Week of March 7, 2022
  • UPDATED: Final Wave of Acceptance Notifications: Week of March 21, 2022
  • UPDATED: Confirmations of Acceptance Due: March 23, 2022
  • Draft Presentation or Talking Point Outline Due for Review: April 20, 2022
  • Final Presentations Due for Review: May 25, 2022
  • Conference Event Dates: June 26-July 1, 2022

Questions for the Program Chair

If you have any questions about the conference submission process or need additional information, please contact the Program Chair, Brian Honan at first-2022chair@first.org. On behalf of the Program Committee, we look forward to bringing the community another compelling program and look forward to seeing everyone in Dublin!