There's more detail and content on the website - so click on the section titles to read more.
Tracy Bills, newly appointed Chair of the FIRST Board of Directors, recaps the Annual General Meeting and thanks outgoing Chair, Dr. Sherif Hashem, for his dedication and leadership. Tracy also encourages everyone to identify new ways they can engage in FIRST’s activities and programs.
The focus of cyber security was on Montreal last month as it played host to a North American record of 795 in person attendees from 74 countries at the 35th Annual FIRST Conference, along with over 100 virtual delegates representing an additional 16 countries. With 76 talks, 13 workshops, 16 special interest group meetings, a capture the flag and 4 panels covering information sharing, cyber insurance, universal software identity and empowering women in cyber, participants had five days packed with cyber security experts sharing their knowledge.
This quarter we can announce the retirement of three SIGs, and the creation of one new SIG.
Focus on the ‘Train-the-Trainer’ sessions which occurred ahead of the Montreal Conference.
FIRST and ICANN jointly put together a DNS-related training specific for incident responders, which can help them enhance their capabilities, better protect their constituents and help the global DNS remain secure, stable and resilient.
As an international organization embracing hundreds of member teams from different parts of the world, FIRST cares about diversity and inclusion in the organisation itself as well as overall activities including events. A subgroup of the Board of Directors have been working in this area, and one of the recent achievements was to launch the Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.
Carlos is a senior international cyber security leader who for over 25 years has focused on enabling cyber fighters through policy, processes and tools, aiming towards a safe and stable global Internet through voluntary international cooperation and the creation and strengthening of relationships.
Peter Lowe reports - Sadly, this year I wasn't able to join everyone at the Annual FIRST Conference in Montreal. By all accounts it was a brilliant time and I'm genuinely jealous of everyone who got to be there - especially the DNS Abuse SIG members who got to meet up in person.
Now that another successful conference is over, it is time to prepare for the next round. The 36th Annual FIRST conference will be held in Fukuoka, Japan on June 9-14, 2024. FIRST looks forward to the active participation by members in the program committee, speakers, and sponsors as well as attendees.
This quarter, 10 new Liaisons and 9 Teams joined as members: from Europe (9, including 5 from Spain), North America (5, all from the U.S.), Africa (2), Asia (2), and South America (1).
FIRST is happy to extend its membership to 2 new countries, reaching 106 countries: Botswana (Botswana-CSIRT) and Malawi (mwCERT). A warm welcome to them!
A quick update regarding the future of FIRST standards.
Are you aware of the social network presence of FIRST? Our handle name is ‘firstdotorg’. Time to start following us if you haven’t done so.
September 13, 2023,
Kyoto, JP
Hosted by APNIC
September 20–22, 2023
Port Vila, VU
Hosted by PacSON
September 21, 2023
Virtual
September 25–26, 2023
Valencia, ES
Hosted by UNDP
September 28–29, 2023
Cardiff, Wales, UK
October 4–5, 2023
Fortaleza, Ceará, BR
Hosted by LACNIC and CERT.br
November 6–8, 2023
Berlin, DE