Call for Papers:
Contribute to
the Global Security
Network

June 22-27, 2008
Hyatt Regency Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada

20th Annual FIRST Conference

Overview

FIRST - Improving Security TogetherThe Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST, www.first.org) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together computer security incident response teams (CSIRT's) and includes response teams from 180 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions spread across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

The annual FIRST conference not only provides a setting for participants to attend tutorials and hear presentations by leading experts in the CSIRT community, it also creates opportunities for networking, collaboration, and sharing technical information. Just as importantly, the conference enables attendees to meet their peers and build confidential relationships across corporate disciplines and geographical boundaries.

FIRST conference participants include not only CSIRT staff, but also IT managers, network and system administrators, software and hardware vendors, law enforcement representatives, security solutions providers, telecommunications organizations, ISPs, and general computer and network security personnel. FIRST conferences cover a broad range of security related topics such as (but not limited to):

  • Advanced techniques in security incident prevention, detection and response
  • Latest advances in computer and network security tools
  • Shared views, experiences, and resolutions in the computer security incident response field.

The Conference

The conference is a five-day event, comprised of two days of Tutorials, three days of Plenary Sessions focused on either Business or Technical issues. These include paper presentations, keynote speeches, Panel discussions and Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions.

Features planned for this year's conference include:

  • Geek Zone - Presentations with a Hands On Format aimed at smaller, more technical audiences of up to 30 people
  • Case Studies Lessons learned in dealing with real events, from discovery to remediation. Share practical experiences in dealing with cyber incidents along with the tools that provided most valuable.
  • SIG (Special Interest Group) meetings
  • Beer 'n Gear where vendors demonstrate their equipment.
  • Security Challenge

The theme for the 2008 conference is Crossing Borders: Towards the Globalization of Security.

The conference language is English.

Call for Papers

The FIRST program committee solicits original contributions for this conference, which are broadly based on the theme of Crossing Borders: Towards the Globalization of Security.

All submissions must reflect original work and must adequately document any overlap with previously published or simultaneously submitted papers from any of the authors. If authors have any doubts regarding whether such overlap exists, they should contact the program chairs prior to submission.

Papers will be scheduled as part of the Main Conference.

Timeslots are available in three lengths:

  • 50 Minutes, with 10 minutes question time
  • 40 minutes, with 10 minutes question time
  • 25 Minutes, with 5 minutes question time.

The program committee is also looking for contributions to the Geek Zone Sessions, where presentations may last for up to three hours and which are aimed at a smaller more technical audience of up to 30 people. These presentations are intended to include live demos and involve their audiences in active participation.

It is important that your presentation/class is:

  • Topical
  • Unique

You should not present with the aim of gaining the audience's interest in any commercial application or product, in other words: NO MARKETING PAPERS.

All submission must be in English in MS Office, OpenOffice or PDF format.

Process of Selection

All paper submissions will be handled electronically thru the web Conference Manager at: https://www.softconf.com/starts/FIRST2008

The program committee will evaluate all submissions based on quality and relevance. All submissions are held in confidence prior to publication in the proceedings.

Submissions received after the deadline (see "Important Dates" below) will not be considered unless the program chair has granted an extension. Where employer, client, or government authorization is needed, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain such authorization prior to submitting the final materials.

Accepted papers will be presented by their author(s) and will be published in the conference proceedings with associated Speaker Biographies and Photographs. The proceedings are provided free of charge to conference attendees. After the conference the papers will be published on the FIRST website.

Copyright

FIRST requires a non-exclusive copyright license for all the papers presented at the conference and for the presentation materials. This includes distribution on the conference CD-ROM and the FIRST website.

Speakers Privileges

A reduction of the conference fee will be offered to one author of each accepted paper or Hands on Class.

Important Dates

Submission DeadlineNovember 30th, 2007
Notification of AcceptanceFebruary 15th 2008
Final SubmissionApril 30th, 2008

20th Annual Conference Sponsorship Team