Press Releases

White House recognizes FIRST's Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) as cybersecurity best practice; Record attendance at FIRSTCON Fukuoka marks Asia-Pacific expansion; Historic FIRST & AfricaCERT Symposium strengthens African cybersecurity collaboration

Fukuoka, Japan - July 24, 2024 - The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) recently concluded its intensive five-day conference, FIRSTCON 2024, held this year in Fukuoka.

Global Cyber Security Leader Honored for Advancing Incident Response Worldwide

In June 2023, attendees at the 35th Annual FIRST Conference, in Montréal, Canada got a first-look preview of the new version of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), version 4.0. After two month of public comment followed by two months of addressing those comments, FIRST is proud to announce the official publication of CVSS version 4.0.

Open CSIRT Foundation and FIRST join forces to bring European cyber security experts together in Spain

The latest tool will be critical to properly assess and prioritize dealing with vulnerabilities and prepare defences against cyber-attacks.
Critical CVSS 4.0 will also allow consumers to assess real-time threats.

FIRST’s AGM took place during the 35th Annual Conference in Montréal, Canada at the start of June 2023. Senior cybersecurity expert Tracy Bills, CERT/CC was elected to lead FIRST’s Board of Directors with the organization’s leadership team further strengthened with the appointment of Carlos Alvarez from ICANN to the Board.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) plans to hold its 35th Annual Conference with the theme ‘Empowering Communities,’ in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from June 4 to 9, 2023. This six-day event brings the incident prevention community together with cyber security experts to foster information sharing, cooperation, and coordination. Typically, over 1,000 people from around the world attend.

The Messaging Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) and Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) announced today they will work together to combat growing Internet abuse and cybersecurity issues.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Team (FIRST) has updated the globally renowned Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) for the cybersecurity industry - a vital system used by organizations all around the world to share sensitive information. The new version of the TLP results from a thorough consultation with over 50 security industry experts over three years with the goals to standardize, unify and modernize the content and language and provide improved supporting materials.

A new Chair and four new cyber security experts joined the Forum of Incident Response and Security Team (FIRST) Board of Directors during the recent AGM to serve the 2022-24 term. Current board member Dr. Sherif Hashem was voted in as the new chair and brings extensive knowledge, experience, and international relations to the role.

Over the past five days, 1,000 specialists representing six continents united in the cyber-crime fight at the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) conference in Dublin, Ireland

From how Ukraine is dealing with cyber attacks against its critical infrastructure, to the rapidly growing access to online child sexual abuse material and the sophisticated approaches to ransomware, phishing, and online fraud as well discussing cooperation with the United Nations and with INTERPOL and law enforcement– no stone was left unturned for delegates working together to protect societies world-wide

Over 1,000 specialists representing six continents to participate in the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) five-day program in Ireland

Google’s Maddie Stone addresses the 0-day cyber-attack in-the-wild and how combating the unknown can help future online defense

The Board of Directors strongly believes that FIRST should be an inclusive organization with broad global participation and collaboration to make the internet safe for everyone.

Nonprofits that focus on action and tangible results to more effectively collaborate and coordinate to increase efficiency and impact globally

Alexander Jäger, Senior Security Engineer of Google, continues in his role as Chief Financial Officer

Jeffrey and Dan join past inductees Ian Cook, Don Stikvoort, and Klaus-Peter Kossakowski

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.

Under the theme – ‘Crossing Uncertain Times’, the conference will feature prominent global speakers from the Incident Response and Security Teams community

Los equipos de respuesta a incidentes de seguridad necieron tras el considerado primer gran ciberataque mundial, provocado por el 'virus Moris', en 1988.

Virtual Conference to take place November 16-18 2020

October 21, 2020 – following a global consultation, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is launching new ethics guidelines for incident response and security teams today on Global Ethics Day. ethicsfIRST provides guidance for cybersecurity professionals on how to conduct themselves professionally and ethically during incidents. Inspired by Earth Day, Global Ethics Day provides an opportunity for organizations to explore the meaning of ethics in international affairs

The awards celebrate outstanding contribution to the Incident Response community and cyber security

July 27th, 2020 - The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is proud to publish its fourth Annual Report today. The report details the organization’s achievements towards building a mature global incident response community. It covers the period between the 2019 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland and July 2020. FIRST Annual Report 2019-2020

Calling for public consultation until end of January, 2020

October 9^th, 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.

FIRST pledges to financially support up to four regions to ensure global integration of security teams

Available in PDF

September 18^th, 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.

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Kossakowski honored as the inaugural inductee of The Incident Response Hall of Fame

July 12th, 2019 - The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has published an update of its internationally recognized Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). CVSS is a common scoring system designed to provide open and universally standard severity ratings of software vulnerabilities for the security community. Used by organizations worldwide, version 3.1 documentation is now available on the FIRST website for members and non-members to reference.

Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams 31^st Annual Conference opens today at Edinburgh International Conference Centre

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.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) today announced the appointment of Chris Gibson as Executive Director of FIRST.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), which brings together incident responders from around the world, invested in the creation of a new training course “DDoS Mitigation Fundamentals”. Authored by Krassimir T. Tzvetanov, a recognized expert in the field, the training teaches incident responders to handle attacks and securing their organisations.

The Forum of Incident Security Response Teams, Inc. (FIRST) is pleased to release the final Product Security Incident Response Teams (PSIRT) Services Framework (PDF) and accompanying training video course. This framework and training video course were developed by a global team of PSIRT practitioners from FIRST members and relevant subject matter experts.

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.

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) issues a grant to FIRST to develop training and an event focused on incident response capacity building in the Pacific

This will mark the first time that the information safety organization brings the conference to Malaysia.

Event to take place at the Prague Marriott on 6-8 December 2017

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams announces a training session on cyber security incident response for policymakers, policy analysts and government officials.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams has published a formal policy to guide cyber security standardization within its standards groups.

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.

Memorandum of Understanding enables both organizations to benefit from each other’s programs to support computer security incident response teams (CSIRT) in the region.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams announces the release of a set of guidelines and norms for vulnerability disclosure that affects multiple parties.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams signs Memorandums of Understanding with GÉANT and OIC-CERT to enhance collaboration.

The leading association of incident response and security teams released a draft of the Product Security Incident Response Teams (PSIRT) Services Framework for public input. This is a formal list of services a PSIRT may consider implementing to address the needs of their constituency. Public input is welcomed until August 31, 2017 via psirt-comments@first.org.

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

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams announces a public request for comments on a draft policy to guide cyber security standardization within its working groups.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams has announced the release of an open training platform for cyber security incident response professionals.

This will mark the first time that the information safety organization brings the conference to the island and the Caribbean region.

The leading association of incident response and security teams publishes its repository of twenty years of incident response learnings.

Memorandum of Understanding enables organizations to improve international cooperation on developing standards for cybersecurity.

Memorandum of Understanding enables both organizations to benefit from each other’s programs to support computer security incident response teams (CSIRT) in the region.

A FIRST Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) operations workshop was taught on September 5th at the International ISC Conference on Information Security & Cryptology (ISCISC2016) at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has announced the release of version 1.0 of its consolidated Traffic Light Protocol (TLP).

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is announcing it is renaming its Fellowship Program to the “Suguru Yamaguchi Fellowship Program” in honor and in memory of the late Dr. Suguru Yamaguchi, a former member of the Board of Directors for FIRST, from 2011 through 2013.

Forum invites stakeholders to get involved in sharing best practice to mitigate malware incidents.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), a recognized global leader in incident response has successfully finished its 28th Annual Conference, which takes place this June (12th – 18th) in Seoul, South Korea. Co-hosted by the MSIP (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning), KISA (Korea Internet Security Agency) and KrCERT/CC, the conference was held at Conrad Seoul.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), a recognized global leader in incident response, has announced the line-up for its 28th Annual Conference, which takes place this June (12th – 18th) in Seoul, South Korea.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, Inc. (FIRST) has announced publication of the SIRT Services Framework Version 1.0. This initial release provides an update on the services provided by Security Incident Response Teams and was developed in collaboration with experts from 25 countries across 6 continents.

The final report of the 2015 Best Practices Forum on CSIRT, organized within the Internet Governance Forum, has been published

800 IT security experts gather at international FIRST Conference in the German capital

Third version aims to make the system more applicable to modern concerns

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) signed an agreement to cooperate in the promotion of a cyber security culture and measures to improve responses to cyber incidents.

FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, has paired up with 4SICS, the premium summit in Northern Europe for security in SCADA, SMARTGRID, and INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS. The second annual international summit takes place in October 2015 (20-22) in Stockholm, Sweden, with a series of high-level presentations and tutorials delivered by international experts in the field of cyber security in SCADA and Industrial Control Systems.

The event was hosted by AfricaCERT and team rep Jean-Robert Hountomey and was also supported by GEANT Association (TRANSITS II Training) and Don Stikvoort.

FIRST is calling for community input on an updated CSIRT services list. Please review and provide comment at http://bit.ly/1Kw52dy!

The Vulnerability Coordination SIG has been established to improve the way in which the increasingly multi-faceted and multi-stakeholder challenge of vulnerability information coordination is met, and to develop a common and consistent methodology for how coordination becomes more effective.

Applications are now being accepted through March 31, 2015 and details are available at http://www.first.org/global/fellowship or by contacting fellowship@first.org.

FIRST would like to thank the members of the CVSS SIG for their hard work and contributions to the community!

Another successful AfricaCERT meeting draws to an end, training provided by both JPCERT/CC and FIRST (TRANSITS). We would like to congratulate everyone including the trainers, local host and the AfricaCERT on another successful event and a job well done!

In order for the continent to properly address the issue of cyber-crime and security its countries must come together to share technologies and experiences.

A great deal of effort and money has been poured into increasing internet accessibility in Africa, writes Maarten van Horenbeeck, chair of the Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams.

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.

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).

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 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.

An Economist Intelligence Unit research program commissioned by IBM.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) today publicly announced its Call for Participants for the core group of members on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System Special Interest Group. Please see details at The Call for Participants period for CVSS version 3 SIG begins March 16 and will end May 4

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.

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is holding its 23rd Annual Conference this June (12th-17th) in the imperial city of Vienna, Austria. Reflecting FIRST’s mission for global cooperation, the five day conference will bring together leading experts from around the world to share best practice and the latest thinking around this year’s theme; Security Lessons: What can history teach us?

FIRST and ICANN held a four-day joint cyber-security workshop for African incident response teams in conjunction with the 37th ICANN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya during March 5-8, 2010.

A Chinese company that has created a massive database of malware found on Chinese Web sites opened up the information to other security organizations on Thursday.

Sabotage or failure on just one computer system could bring down the world information network in a disaster inflicting more damage than the Kobe earthquake, security experts learned today at their annual conference. They also heard how vulnerable the IT infrastructure is - and how thwarted attacks on the Beijing Olympics showed the determination of cyber criminals.

A law enforcement loophole through which cyber criminals have been escaping started to close today as international police and the world's leading forum of online security experts forged a new alliance.

Update from FIRST Annual Conference Kyoto - Dr Suguru Yamaguchi, member and adviser on information security at the Japanese Cabinet Office National Information Security Centre, gave the opening keynote address. For complete press release see http://www.first.org/newsroom/releases/20090630.html.

FIRST, one of the world's leading Internet security organizations today, warned businesses and governments to prepare for a surge in sabotage, thefts and other cyber-attacks by insiders as disaffected employees retaliate in the wake of the global depression.

Pittsburgh, PA, February, 25 2009 - The second international competition honoring best practices and advances in safeguarding the security of computer systems and networks was announced today by FIRST (the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams) and the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC).

The world’s economic woes haven’t stopped unprecedented levels of sponsorship being pledged for the 21st Annual Conference of FIRST with six months still to go before proceedings open on June 28, 2009, in Kyoto.

The lessons Japan can teach the world about disaster recovery will be a top theme for delegates from FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, when they meet for their 21st annual conference in Kyoto next year.

New methods that organisations and individuals can adopt for free to protect themselves from malicious Internet attacks were unveiled today at the 20th annual conference of FIRST, the Forum of Internet Response and Security Teams.

The number of innocent individuals in China whose personal computers were hijacked by criminals rose by a staggering 2125 per cent between 2006 and 2007, delegates were told here today at the 20th annual conference of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.

A new initiative to ease tensions between law enforcers and internet security experts was launched here today at the 20th annual conference of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.

More than 400 of the world's top internet crime fighters are in Vancouver this week for the 20th annual conference of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.