FIRST Blog 2025

A leak of 200,000 internal Black Basta chat messages reveals how a modern ransomware group structures its operations to attack victims, employing a range of tactics that, theoretically, should be easy to defend against.

Last year I opened a presentation with this: «Human error are the words cyber security guys use when they don't know shit». The response was laughter. But I think it is true. Here's why, and why it's relevant to incident responders.

We’re expecting 9006 +/- 1259 vulnerabilities this quarter, as we close out the year.

The FIRST Board of Directors is introducing a new structured approach to strategic planning, aimed at enhancing the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission and solidify its position as a global leader in cybersecurity and incident response.

In 2025 we expect another record-breaking year of CVE production. This year we expect 45505 +/- 4,363 CVEs to be published in the calendar year (CY). There’s a 5% chance the actual number exceeds the maximum (49868) and a 5% chance is less than the minimum (41142). Rather than give you a false sense of precision, it’s probably far easier to say we expect between 41-50k of vulnerabilities in calendar year CY 2025.