The 24th Annual FIRST Conference, Malta focuses on the need for collaboration to combat new global security threats

Speaker line-up includes international experts from NATO, Facebook, Google, ENISA, JPCERT, Malaysian CERT, and Brazilian Federal Policy among others

The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is holding its 24th Annual Conference this June (17th – 22nd) on one of the most fortified islands in the Mediterranean, Malta. Reflecting FIRST’s mission for global cooperation, the five-day conference will bring together leading experts and security professionals from around the world to share best practice and the latest thinking on this year’s theme; Security is not an island.

The field of information security is a large mosaic of technical, procedural and physical controls that seeks to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. Security, however, is not an island. It must co-exist and involves collaboration with application developers, cloud computing environments and mobile platforms, not to mention regulatory compliance and law enforcement needs.

The 24th Annual FIRST Conference seeks to bridge the gap by focusing on the practical aspects of security and incident response, in the face of a growing adoption of cloud computing and other distributed architectures.

FIRST is a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing together computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) from over 250 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions from across the globe. Confirmed speakers at this year’s conference include security experts from leading global organisations, such as Facebook, Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft, Google and Symantec.

Keynote speakers include:

• Francisco García Morán, Director General, Directorate General Informatics (DIGIT), European Commission (EU)
• Suleyman Anil, Head of Cyber Defence, NATO
• Lance Spitzner, Director, SANS Securing the Human Program, SANS Institute

Chris Gibson, Chair of FIRST says, “Considering the inroads that mobile devices are making in our daily workplace, it is time for security to redefine itself in some fundamental way. In order to make this happen, it’s vital to bring the best in the business together to share experiences and help overcome challenges. FIRST exists solely for this purpose, allowing experts to build confidential relationships across corporate disciplines and geographic boundaries, for the advancement of global security.”

The conference is open to both FIRST and non-FIRST members and welcomes IT managers, network and system administrators, software and hardware vendors, law enforcement representatives, security solutions providers, telecommunications organisations, ISPs, and general computer and network security personnel.

Hosted by MITA (Malta Information Technology Agency) this year’s conference will be held at the Hilton Malta hotel in St. Julian’s. An early bird discount is available until 1 April, more information regarding registration fees and registration terms and conditions can be found at http://conference.first.org/fees/index.aspx

For further information and to register please visit: http://conference.first.org/

Social Media Links:

To hear podcasts from last year’s conference, visit: http://conference.first.org/podcasts.aspx
Twitter: Follow us at @FIRSTdotOrg or ?FIRST2012
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FIRSTCON
LinkedIn Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr&gid=2585

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Journalists interested in attending the conference should contact:

Deepa Vyas / Janine Maxwell
Kinross + Render PR
0207 378 1234
dv@kinrossrender.com / jm@kinrossrender.com

About FIRST

Founded in 1990, FIRST consists of internet emergency response teams from more than 250 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.

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Other references:

• http://www.itnewsonline.com/showrwstory.php?storyid=7480
• http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/events/24th-annual-first-conference-addresses-new-global-security-threats-62420