Former FIRST Chair Chris Gibson appointed to lead UK national CERT

December 1^st, 2013

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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).

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.Chris became involved with FIRST during his role as Director of E-crime at Citigroup. Since he attended his first Annual FIRST Conference in 2001 in Toulouse, France, he has been an active member of the FIRST community, which brings together a wide variety of academic, commercial and government organizations from across the globe to work together to resolve internet security incidents. Commenting on his appointment, Chris Gibson said: “I am delighted to join CERT-UK as we enter this exciting phase, with implementation underway and the leadership team now being appointed. I am looking forward to the task of bringing together government, industry, law enforcement and academia to establish the CERT as a team of professionals forming a world-class response to cyber threats to the UK.”

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.Chris became involved with FIRST during his role as Director of E-crime at Citigroup. Since he attended his first Annual FIRST Conference in 2001 in Toulouse, France, he has been an active member of the FIRST community, which brings together a wide variety of academic, commercial and government organizations from across the globe to work together to resolve internet security incidents. Commenting on his appointment, Chris Gibson said: “I am delighted to join CERT-UK as we enter this exciting phase, with implementation underway and the leadership team now being appointed. I am looking forward to the task of bringing together government, industry, law enforcement and academia to establish the CERT as a team of professionals forming a world-class response to cyber threats to the UK.”Maarten Van Horenbeeck, current FIRST Chair, said: “FIRST is delighted to welcome CERT-UK to the international community of computer security incident response teams. We believe that the UK Government has taken an important step to make the internet more secure with its appointment of such a distinguished member of the international incident response community.”

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.Chris became involved with FIRST during his role as Director of E-crime at Citigroup. Since he attended his first Annual FIRST Conference in 2001 in Toulouse, France, he has been an active member of the FIRST community, which brings together a wide variety of academic, commercial and government organizations from across the globe to work together to resolve internet security incidents. Commenting on his appointment, Chris Gibson said: “I am delighted to join CERT-UK as we enter this exciting phase, with implementation underway and the leadership team now being appointed. I am looking forward to the task of bringing together government, industry, law enforcement and academia to establish the CERT as a team of professionals forming a world-class response to cyber threats to the UK.”Maarten Van Horenbeeck, current FIRST Chair, said: “FIRST is delighted to welcome CERT-UK to the international community of computer security incident response teams. We believe that the UK Government has taken an important step to make the internet more secure with its appointment of such a distinguished member of the international incident response community.”Van Horenbeeck adds: "Chris is among the most respected security professionals in our industry. Under his leadership, FIRST launched numerous successful initiatives to share incident response capability, including our Fellowship program to integrate CERT teams from the developing world into the global incident response community. With Chris at the helm, the United Kingdom is well served to defend itself from information security threats."

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.Chris became involved with FIRST during his role as Director of E-crime at Citigroup. Since he attended his first Annual FIRST Conference in 2001 in Toulouse, France, he has been an active member of the FIRST community, which brings together a wide variety of academic, commercial and government organizations from across the globe to work together to resolve internet security incidents. Commenting on his appointment, Chris Gibson said: “I am delighted to join CERT-UK as we enter this exciting phase, with implementation underway and the leadership team now being appointed. I am looking forward to the task of bringing together government, industry, law enforcement and academia to establish the CERT as a team of professionals forming a world-class response to cyber threats to the UK.”Maarten Van Horenbeeck, current FIRST Chair, said: “FIRST is delighted to welcome CERT-UK to the international community of computer security incident response teams. We believe that the UK Government has taken an important step to make the internet more secure with its appointment of such a distinguished member of the international incident response community.”Van Horenbeeck adds: "Chris is among the most respected security professionals in our industry. Under his leadership, FIRST launched numerous successful initiatives to share incident response capability, including our Fellowship program to integrate CERT teams from the developing world into the global incident response community. With Chris at the helm, the United Kingdom is well served to defend itself from information security threats."About FIRST
Founded in 1990, FIRST consists of internet emergency response teams from more than 200 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions from the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania. It leads the world’s fight-back against cyber-crime, sabotage and terrorism, and promotes cooperation among computer security incident response teams and law enforcement agencies. For more information, visit: www.first.org.

December 1^st, 2013Chris 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 new national CERT – set up following lessons learned from the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 – is set to become operational in early 2014 and will lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole.The UK government has made cyber security a national priority in recognition of the real and growing threats of cyber attacks, which cost the UK economy billions of pounds and are particularly harmful to industry.Chris chaired FIRST from 2011-2013 and is still a member of the organization's Steering Committee. He was previously a member of the Steering Committee from 2004 until 2010, serving as CFO since 2005.Chris became involved with FIRST during his role as Director of E-crime at Citigroup. Since he attended his first Annual FIRST Conference in 2001 in Toulouse, France, he has been an active member of the FIRST community, which brings together a wide variety of academic, commercial and government organizations from across the globe to work together to resolve internet security incidents. Commenting on his appointment, Chris Gibson said: “I am delighted to join CERT-UK as we enter this exciting phase, with implementation underway and the leadership team now being appointed. I am looking forward to the task of bringing together government, industry, law enforcement and academia to establish the CERT as a team of professionals forming a world-class response to cyber threats to the UK.”Maarten Van Horenbeeck, current FIRST Chair, said: “FIRST is delighted to welcome CERT-UK to the international community of computer security incident response teams. We believe that the UK Government has taken an important step to make the internet more secure with its appointment of such a distinguished member of the international incident response community.”Van Horenbeeck adds: "Chris is among the most respected security professionals in our industry. Under his leadership, FIRST launched numerous successful initiatives to share incident response capability, including our Fellowship program to integrate CERT teams from the developing world into the global incident response community. With Chris at the helm, the United Kingdom is well served to defend itself from information security threats."About FIRST
Founded in 1990, FIRST consists of internet emergency response teams from more than 200 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions from the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania. It leads the world’s fight-back against cyber-crime, sabotage and terrorism, and promotes cooperation among computer security incident response teams and law enforcement agencies. For more information, visit: www.first.org.Please download the full release at first-press-release-20131201.pdf