What's New 2013

It has been a slow process, but the world is finally waking up to the reality of cyber-security in Africa.

Together with Jean Robert Hountomey of the AfricaCERT, FIRST organized a 2-day TRANSITS training in Cote d'Ivoire November 24th and 25th, colocated with the AfriNIC meeting and the JPCERT training.

• Grupo de Respuesta a Emergencias Cibernéticas de Colombia (colCERT), Colombia
• Security Operations Center - Cyber Operations Command Joint (SOC-CCOC), Colombia
• Box Incident Response Team (Box IRT), US
• Mandiant, US
• CARICERT, Curaçao
• Swedish Armed Forces CERT (FM CERT), Sweden

Chris Gibson, the former Chair of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) – the recognized global leader in computer incident response – has been appointed Director of the UK’s newly established Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK).

The 2014 Call for Speakers is open for the 26th Annual FIRST Conference: Back to the ‘root’ of Incident Response. More information regarding presentation qualifications can be found at the above link. Submissions are due by December 23, 2014.

FIRST welcomes back Microsoft to the 2014 conference sponsorship team! Microsoft has been a strong supporter of FIRST and a sponsor since 2005.

FIRST would like to welcome NBC Universal as the 26th Annual FIRST Conference Local Host. Led by Mike Higgins, CISO at NBC Universal, this marks NBC’s first time sponsoring the annual FIRST conference. We look forward to working with another excellent local host!

REGISTER NOW FOR THE FIRST Energy Symposium! Join FIRST in outreaching to the Energy Sector at this two day event. TRANSITS training will be offered – as well as a track by ISC2. www.first.org/events/symposium/energy2013

The Curacao TC is accepting presentations. Join the first FIRST TC in the Caribbean on October 28th co-located with LACNIC 20 / LACNOG 2013. For more information or to register please see www.first.org/events/colloquia/curacao2013

You are invited to the FIRST Indonesia TC to be held Sept 25-26 hosted by Id-SIRTII. For more details, please see www.first.org/events/colloquia/indonesia2013

Register now for the Super Early Rate of $1300 through 1 August 2013.

If the number of internet users in LDCs continues to rise, it is crucial that we have a co-ordinated global response to information security incidents. Posted by Chris Gibson

FIRST is now accepting candidates to the FIRST Steering Committee. The Election will be held at the 2013 Annual General Meeting in Bangkok on 20 June 2013. For more information https://www.first.org/events/agm/2013

FIRST announces the launch of the FIRST Fellowship Program, which will enable information security incident response teams from the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) to become part of the global incident response community.

The 2013 Conference program now available at http://conference.first.org/program/index.aspx. Be sure to check it out and register for Bangkok today at https://registration.first.org/registration/2013/bangkok

CIO Asia — Derek Manky, in a guest post on CIO Asia, describes how FIRST is one of the best examples of an international body that encourages information sharing between public and private sector.

The Metrics SIG will be hosting a webinar "Developing Indicators with Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs)" on:
Tuesday, 26 February from 15:00-16:00 UTC / 10:00-11:00 Eastern

This webinar will be presented by Christian Reimsbach-Kounatze, Internet Economist / Policy Analyst - Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry; Information and Communications Policy

This webinar is for FIRST Members only and invited guests – and you must register in advance at https://registration.first.org/registration/2013/mswebinarfeb

Registration is now open for the Amsterdam TC on 2-3 April. Please visit program page for more details on how to submit a paper for presentation or to register. This event is sponsored by Cisco.

Register today for the Lisbon TC co-hosted with TF-CSIRT! 28-31st January at LNEC in Lisbon, Portugal. See program page for details.

Registration is now open and early bird rates in effect until 1 April. Join FIRST for our 25th Annual Conference. Sponsorship opportunities are still available.