FIRST announces the Suguru Yamaguchi Fellowship Program

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.

11 August 2016 – 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.

FIRST recognizes the need of integrating security teams in underrepresented countries into the global incident response community. The Fellowship Program was launched in 2013 with a goal to support these countries in developing closer ties with its community. As part of the Program, FIRST annually offers up to four teams from these countries the ability to participate in the FIRST conference, its working groups and events. This year, the Suguru Yamaguchi Fellowship Program welcomed incident responders from Côte d'Ivoire, Myanmar, Ghana and Bangladesh.

Dr. Suguru Yamaguchi was the key initiator of the Program. In recent years, he applied his years of experience to supporting CSIRT activities and human resource development in developing countries. The Fellowship Program is being renamed in acknowledgement of his countless achievements in pioneering and contributing to such activities.

Margrete Raaum, Chair of FIRST, said: "Suguru Yamaguchi had the knowledge and creativity to identify such important possibilities for our outreach efforts, and the Suguru Yamaguchi fellowship program has been, and will continue to be, invaluable to both participants and to the rest of the international information security community".

Maarten Van Horenbeeck, former Chair of FIRST, also commented: "We launched the Fellowship Program in 2013 with two teams, and the subsequent years, after a rigorous selection process, welcomed four teams. Today, we’re starting to see the benefit of this investment to the community. These teams are actively applying for full membership, and are actively participating in other incident response working groups and meetings. Suguru Yamaguchi advocated an idea which is materially benefiting incident response capability across the globe. We’re very thankful for his efforts and are excited to rename the program in his honor."

Satoshi Yamaguchi, Suguru’s brother, noted on behalf of his family that: "It is a great pleasure to know that the Fellowship Program for supporting CSIRTs in developing countries will be renamed after Suguru. I hope that his spirit will be carried over to many people across the board."

Teams that are interested in applying to the Suguru Yamaguchi Fellowship Program are invited to contact FIRST at fellowship@first.org to obtain an application form. For more information about the FIRST Fellowship Program, visit https://www.first.org/global/fellowship.

About FIRST

Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is made up of internet security teams from more than 350 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 76 countries. Its goal is to promote cooperation and information-sharing among computer security incident response teams through events, training and education, and working groups. For more information, visit: https://www.first.org.MEDIA CONTACTS

Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is made up of internet security teams from more than 350 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 76 countries. Its goal is to promote cooperation and information-sharing among computer security incident response teams through events, training and education, and working groups. For more information, visit: https://www.first.org.MEDIA CONTACTSHarry Saunders or Janine Maxwell
Four Communications
Tel: +44 (0)20 3697 4329 or +44 (0)20 3697 4351
Email: harry.saunders@fourcommunications.com or janine.maxwell@fourcommunications.com
Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is made up of internet security teams from more than 350 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 76 countries. Its goal is to promote cooperation and information-sharing among computer security incident response teams through events, training and education, and working groups. For more information, visit: https://www.first.org.MEDIA CONTACTSHarry Saunders or Janine Maxwell
Four Communications
Tel: +44 (0)20 3697 4329 or +44 (0)20 3697 4351
Email: harry.saunders@fourcommunications.com or janine.maxwell@fourcommunications.com

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 12:00:00 +0000