FIRST strengthens global ties by partnering with regional security organizations

15^th June 2017 – Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the world’s leading association of security and incident response teams, has marked its 29th annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico by signing two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with GÉANT – Europe’s leading collaboration on e-infrastructure and services for research and education, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT) respectively. It is hoped that the formalization of cooperation between the organizations will enable closer integration within the incident response community, and provide further opportunities for collaboration between the groups.

The MoU between FIRST and GÉANT is intended to further cooperation in organizing the TF-CSIRT meeting and regional symposium. TF-CSIRT is a task force within GÉANT that promotes collaboration and coordination between CSIRTs in Europe and neighboring regions. The event will bring together TF-CSIRT and FIRST members to discuss topical computer security and incident response issues.

FIRST and OIC-CERT have signed an MoU to assist each other in organizing events and training, mutual development of event programs, and keeping in contact regarding the ongoing work being undertaken by each organization.

Margrete Raaum, Chair of FIRST, said: “Recent cyber attacks such as WannaCry have proven that the need for our communities to work even more closely together is constantly growing.”

“These incidents do not affect just a single organization or company — they affect the internet as a whole. It is only through cooperation that the incident response community can become more effective at dealing with complex and widespread cyber security breaches.”

Nicole Harris, Project Development Officer for GÉANT, said: “There has been informal cooperation between TF-CSIRT and FIRST for some time, in terms of organizing conferences, shared vision and knowledge exchange. These agreements serve to formalize that cooperation, and will hopefully increase the opportunities for collaboration between the three groups.”

Eng. Badar Ali Said Ali Salehi, Chair of OIC-CERT, added: “The need for cooperation between international and regional organizations is highly critical due to the borderless and increasingly sophisticated nature of cyber threats. These arrangements will give mutual benefits to all organizations in our efforts to mitigate cyber threats.”

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About FIRST

Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) consists of internet emergency response teams from more than 360 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 78 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. It promotes cooperation among computer security incident response teams. For more information, visit: https://www.first.org.

About GÉANT

GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related e-infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. The organisation develops, delivers and promotes advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and supports innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst its members, partners and the wider research and education networking community. To learn more, visit https://www.geant.org or follow us on Twitter @GEANTnews.

About OIC-CERT

OIC-CERT was established in the year 2009, to provide a platform for member countries to explore and to develop collaborative initiatives and possible partnerships in matters pertaining to cyber security that shall strengthen their self-reliant in the cyberspace. To date, the OIC-CERT has 41 members from 21 OIC countries. Further information about OIC-CERT can be found at: https://www.oic-cert.org .

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