FIRST jointly honors Ian Cook and Don Stikvoort in The Incident Response Hall of Fame awards

September 24, 2020 - The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has jointly honored Ian Charles Cook and Don Stikvoort in the second edition of The Incident Response Hall of Fame. The Incident Hall of Fame rewards visionaries and leaders in the field of cyber security with inductees receiving a lifetime Liaison Membership to FIRST.

Ian and Don were chosen based on their enormous impact on the development and growth of global Incident Response, their continued impact on the advancement and evolution of the Internet as well as contributing to the Internet’s reach across the globe.

Ian Cook is a cyber security veteran with 43 years’ cyber security experience including six years on the FIRST Board. He has held senior technical and management positions at the UK NHS, Tricentrol Oil Corporation, Saudi American Bank, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Pentest Ltd, Barclays Bank and Team Cymru.

Ian has been an active member of FIRST since 1997 and has sponsored many companies to join too. As well as co-chairing the 19th Annual FIRST Conference and leading many other initiatives; Ian was one of the key drivers who transformed FIRST into a professional and influential global organization. More recently Ian was instrumental in forming the FIRST Cyber Threat Intelligence SIG and facilitated the 2019 FIRST CTI Symposium in London.

On receiving the award, Ian said: “I am delighted to accept this award. Being recognized by such a great organization and by my peers is a tremendous honor. My first FIRST conference was Bristol 1997, which was hosted by JANET-CERT. I was made to feel welcome from the start. I am pleased to see that Don Stikvoort has also been recognized by FIRST and that we both join Klaus-Peter Kossakowski who received the award in 2019.”

In 1988 Don joined the Dutch national research network SURFnet. Don was among the pioneers who created the European Internet starting in 1989. He recognized “security” as a concern in 1991, chaired SURFcert between 1992-8, and was the founding father of NCSC-NL, the Dutch national team. Don became a member of FIRST in 1992 and has been incredibly active during his membership from chairing the FIRST conference in Australia, co-chair of the Traffic Light Protocol working group and participating in CSIRT, Metrics and Ethics working groups. In 1998 he co-wrote the ‘Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs)’. Don continues to support the global cyber security community through S-CURE the company he founded in 1998.

Don Stikvoort said: “This award is more than anything else, a wonderful inspiration to continue on my path. In my eyes we have built an Internet, for me personally since 1989, that is one of the major game changers in history. That work is by far not done yet: together we need to continue to make this amazing "tool" safe and free to use for all of mankind. FIRST is a unique meeting place to help shape this future.”

“The Incident Response Hall of Fame recognizes the significant contributions and positive impact that both individuals have brought to the Incident Response and cyber security community,” stated Serge Droz, Chair of FIRST. “Both Ian and Don are well deserved honorees and role models who inspire both our members and non-members”.

Both Ian and Don were nominated by past inductees, members of the FIRST Board of Directors, representatives, secondary representatives of a team that is a member of FIRST, and FIRST Liaison members. All nominations were reviewed and screened to ensure that they met the nomination criteria and eligibility.

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About FIRST

FIRST aspires to bring together incident response and security teams from every country across the world to ensure a safe internet for all. Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) consists of internet emergency response teams from 539 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 96 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceania.

www.first.org

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