About FIRST

FIRST published its eighth Annual Report which covers the organization’s accomplishments towards its vision of bringing together incident response and security teams from every country across the world to ensure a safe internet for all. The report is available at FIRST Annual Report 2023-2024.

ICASI – the Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet was officially integrated into the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) on May 28, 2021. Established in 2008, ICASI’s purpose was to strengthen the global security landscape by driving excellence and innovation in security response practices; facilitating collaboration among members to analyze, mitigate, and resolve multi-stakeholder, global security challenges. This role will continue but as part of the existing FIRST PSIRT SIG, expand and improve the community’s ability to respond to vulnerabilities across multiple vendors. Founded in 1990, FIRST is the global leader in incident response.

October 9th, 2019 – As the year draws to a close, it is time for businesses across all industries and sectors to reflect and prepare for the upcoming new year. With this in mind, premier organization and recognized global leader in incident response - Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has produced 11 vital steps that organizations should take to improve their incident response strategy.

September 18th, 2019 – At FIRST we strongly believe that in order to build a global cybersecurity incident response community, from which every company or user participating in the Internet can benefit, we should all work to limit the impact of sanctions or export regulations on incident responders. This includes being a forum where technology corporations such as Huawei, have the ability to participate the same as others.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams releases its third annual report, covering the scope of its activities from the 2018 conference in Kuala Lumpur, through its 2019 annual event in Edinburgh.

FIRST is pleased to announce the creation of two new Special Interest Groups: PSIRT and Cyber Insurance! The PSIRT SIG is developing learning materials to support the evolution of PSIRTs at all maturity levels, and the Cyber Insurance SIG is coordinating data sharing and providing a feedback mechanism between CERTs and Cyber Insurance organizations.

We’re kicking off the first episode of this year’s podcast with the man of the moment, Andrew Cormack, program chair of the 31st Annual FIRST Conference! Chris John Riley and Martin McKeay return as our podcast hosts once again and pick up where they left off almost a year ago during their last chat with Andrew. The guys touch on the program selection process, highlights of this year’s program, and what new things attendees will experience this year. Andrew is the Chief Regulatory Adviser at Jisc and a long time member and supporter of FIRST and the IR community.

Volunteers at FIRST initiative enables contributors to share their past experience with FIRST community and also receive a certificate of participation in the program.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams releases its second annual report, covering the scope of its activities from the 2017 conference in Puerto Rico, through its 2018 annual event in Kuala Lumpur.

A global and trusted network of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) can help spread the message within their respective countries and can be used to a great effect to combat dispersed sources of attacks.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is the oldest forum of such kind and was founded in 1989 with exactly that goal – to establish communication channels between CSIRTs that can be used to share best practices and, during incidents, to exchange information about attacks and coordinate response.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams releases inaugural annual report, covering the scope of its activities from the 2016 conference in Seoul, through its 2017 annual event in Puerto Rico.

The event offers conferences, keynote presentations and activities designed to maximize network opportunities and information exchanges on information security and incident response.

The working draft of the 29th Annual FIRST Conference agenda has been posted. Please note that the agenda will be undergoing modifications over the next few weeks as we confirm our speakers. For any specific scheduling questions, please contact the planning team at first-2017@first.org.

The FIRST Board of Directors recognizes and shares the concerns of members and event attendees about recent changes in US immigration policy. We believe global participation is a prerequisite to developing strong and successful responses to internet security issues.

As technology advances, so does our ability to encrypt data, with neural networks now capable of learning how to keep data safe. With so much innovation at our fingertips, Davey Winder explores where else encryption might go in the future.

The figures are still abysmal. So Kate O'Flaherty asks what can the information security industry do to encourage more women to join the sector?

FIRST is thrilled to announce the return of General Dynamics Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions as a Gold Sponsor for 2015. The organization has been proudly supporting the annual FIRST conference and community since 2011. We look forward to having their team with us in Berlin.

FIRST would like to welcome two new sponsors to the 2014 Sponsorship Team: Lookingglass (www.lgscout.com) and CyberSponse (www.cybersponse.com). Both organizations are joining us at the Gold level and will be exhibiting during conference week.

FIRST would like to welcome back Adobe to the FIRST 2014 Sponsorship Team. Adobe has been a sponsor of FIRST since 2010 Miami. New to the team for 2014 is Co3 Systems with a Banquet sponsorship. This is their first time sponsoring at the annual conference.

FIRST welcomes back two organization to the 2014 Sponsorship Team. CIRCL (Computer Incident Response Center Luxembourg) has been sponsoring the FIRST conference since 2012 and returns to the 2014 team as a supporting sponsor. General Dynamics Fidelis will also be joining us in Boston at the Gold Sponsor level. General Dynamics Fidelis has been a sponsor of the annual conference since 2011. We give great thanks to both organizations for their continued support of the annual conference and of FIRST’s mission.

FIRST would like to welcome back and thank SAP for their continued support of the annual conference. SAP has been sponsoring the annual FIRST conference since 2011 and returns to the 2014 Sponsorship Team as a supporting sponsor. FIRST would also like to give thanks to first time exhibitor, BrandProtect for their support of the upcoming 2014 conference.

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 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 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.

The Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) has been selected to host one of the largest information security conferences for 2012. This year, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has chosen Malta for its 24th Annual Conference, which will be held between the 17th and 22nd of June 2012.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is holding its 24th Annual Conference this June (17th – 22nd) on one of the most fortified islands in the Mediterranean, Malta. Reflecting FIRST’s mission for global cooperation, the five-day conference will bring together leading experts and security professionals from around the world to share best practice and the latest thinking on this year’s theme; Security is not an island.

If you’d like your talk to be considered for the 24th Annual FIRST Conference, “Security is Not an Island,” please turn in your submissions no later than Friday, December 16th. The official Call for Speakers Letter from 2012 Program Chair, Dr. Jose Nazario can be found at http://conference.first.org/cfs. The submission form is located towards the bottom of the letter.

Welcome to the updated FIRST Website. As you can see, we've given the site a new look and feel (and made some backend updates as well). If you have any questions about the new site - please contact first-sec@first.org.

FIRST would like to welcome the Department of Justice, Security Operations Center (JSOC) DOJCERT as it’s newest member team. Special thanks to sponsors GE-CIRT and DOE-CIRC.

The United Arab Emirates Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) sponsored by Symantec CERT (SymCERT) and MyCERT and Internet Identity (IID), USA sponsored by Boeing (BCERT) and AusCERT.

FIRST would like to welcome the new members of the FIRST Steering Committee and FIRST.org Inc Board of Directors: Robert Schischka of CERT.at (Austria) and Reneaué Railton of Cisco (USA). We would also like to welcome back our re-elected members: Chris Gibson of Citi CIRT (USA/UK), Pete Allor of IBM (USA) and Steve Adegbite of Microsoft (USA) who was re-elected as the SC Chair.

Continuing for another year will be Kurt Sauer of Spinlock Technologies (Japan), Tom Mullen of BT (UK), Yurie Ito of ICANN/JPCERT/CC (Japan), Ken van Wyk of KRvW Associates (USA) and Jordi Aguila of e-LC CSIRT (Spain).

Special thanks to Jeff Boerio of Intel for interest in running -- and to Derrick Scholl and Scott McIntyre for their years of service to FIRST!

CERT Estonia (CERT-EE) sponsored by SI-CERT and CERT-FI; HSBC Rapid Emergency Action Crisis Team (REACT), USA sponsored by Citi CIRT and Goldman Sachs and Trustwave SpiderLabs CIRT (TWSL-CIRT), USA sponsored by NU-CERT and IBM. Please join us in welcoming the new teams and thanking their sponsors!

FIRST would like to welcome Neustar to the 2010 Sponsorship Team! Neustar joins us as a Gold Sponsor and will also be exhibiting at the conference. This is Neustar's first time sponsoring the Annual FIRST Conference.

CERT BWI (Germany) sponsored by CERTBw (CERT German Armed Forces) and Siemens CERT; Computer Emergency Response Team of the Swiss Government (GovCERT.ch), Switzerland sponsored by CERT-Bund and IP+ CERT; Research In Motion, Corporate Security - Information Security Operations Centre (RIM CS-ISOC), Canada sponsored by TDBFG CSIRT and Bell IPCR; CERT Societe Generale (CERT SG), France sponsored by CERTA and dbCERT.

Now the latest program agenda of Joint Workshop on Security, and FIRST Technical Colloquium 2008 in Tokyo has been updated and published. We are looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible in one of the best season of the year in Tokyo, Japan!

A total of 123 registrants from 28 different countries came together for the 23rd TF-CSIRT meeting on today. 66 different FIRST teams and TERENA members were able to participate in this event hosted by Sun Microsystems. The FIRST/TF-CSIRT Seminar will continue on Tuesday.

NAB ITSAR - National Australian Bank IT Security Assessment and Response - has recently affiliated to FIRST as a full member. FIRST thanks the sponsors (AusCERT and VeriSign) for their efforts, and look forward to the active participation of the new member!

NRI SecureTechnologies Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCSIRT), F-Secure Security Labs (FSLab) and Yahoo! Incident Response Division (YIRD) have joined FIRST as full members. FIRST thanks the sponsors for their efforts, and look forward to the active participation of the new members!

David Mortman has recently affiliated to FIRST as a liaison member. FIRST thanks the sponsor Team Cymru for its support and look forward to the active participation of the new member!

The Spanish Governmental National Cryptology Center CSIRT (CCN-CERT) and the Secunia CSIRT (Secunia Research) have joined FIRST as full members. FIRST thanks the sponsors for their efforts and look forward to the active participation of the new members!

Debate the challenges of transnational ethics and safety and learn how to transform yourself technically, politically, legally and efficiently into a truly global force for Internet security at the 20th Annual FIRST Conference in Vancouver, Canada.

The Tunisian CERT Coordination Center (CERT-TCC) and Uruguay's Telecommunications Agency CSIRT (CSIRT ANTEL) have joined FIRST as full members. FIRST thanks the sponsors for their efforts, and look forward to active participation of the new members!

CyberCIRT - Cyberklix Computer Incident Response Team - has recently affiliated to FIRST as a full member. FIRST thanks the sponsors (TDBFG CSIRT and BMO-ISIRT) for their efforts, and look forward to active participation of the new member!

CERT/CC was the first to come in with sponsorship this year and they did so with a splash at the Platinum level. Also joining FIRST and the FIRST Sponsorship Team at the Silver level is Q-CERT from Qatar.

British Telecom, a member of the Sponsorship Team since 1998, is back as the top sponsor. Joining BT are four NEW additions –Telefónica, INTECO, Endeavor and BFK– and new levels for IBM ISS, Assuria and E-Secure-IT. Our thanks to all of the sponsors.

Hosted by Q-CERT from 12-16 April 2007, this TC marks the inaugural FIRST event in the Middle East region. More information about the program and location are available at FIRST website. FIRST Members may register online to attend to the event

Q-CERT - the national CERT Coordination Center of State of Qatar - has recently affiliated to FIRST as a full member. FIRST thanks the sponsors (GOVCERT.NL and SingCERT) for their efforts, and look forward to active participation of the new member!

The Telefonica del Peru CSIRT has recently joined FIRST as a full member. This new addition is the seventh Latin American team within FIRST. FIRST thanks the sponsors for their efforts, and look forward to active participation of the new member!

Google, KrCERT/CC, Cisco and Cymru are now sponsoring our conference. Our thanks to all of our current sponsors for their valuable support. There are still sponsorship opportunities available, please visit the Conference Sponsorship web page.

ENISA CSIRT Setting up Guide describes the process of setting up a Computer Security and Incident Response Team (CSIRT) from all relevant perspectives like business management, process management and technical perspective.

October 2006 Technical Colloquia website is now available. FIRST Members may register online to attend to the event, from 07-12 October, in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

September 2006 Technical Colloquia website is now available. FIRST Members may register online to attend to the event, from 25-27 September, in Seoul (KO)

Private Lives and Corporate Risk - have a glimpse on what's coming next year in Seville, Spain. Call for papers and Sponsorship opportunities are available at the conference website.

All the Member-related information may be found on this new section of the website