FIRST

🌎 Save the Date! Join the 2026 FIRST Regional Symposium Latin America & Caribbean in Mendoza, Argentina, on October 21–22, 2026. https://lnkd.in/dvCJRxRG Co-hosted by LACNIC and CERT.br / NIC.br, and co-located with LACNIC 46, the event will bring together FIRST members, CSIRTs, network operators, and cybersecurity professionals from across the region. ✅ Plenary Sessions – October 21 ✅ Training Sessions – October 22 ✅ Hybrid attendance options Connect, collaborate, and strengthen incident response capabilities across the LAC community. #FIRST #LACNIC46 #CyberSecurity #IncidentResponse #CSIRT #InfoSec

🌐 FIRST's 2025 Annual Report is here, and it captures a year of real growth across our global community. We welcomed 133 new applications and now stand at 834 teams, 4 associates, and 205 individual members across 113 countries. Our Annual Conference in Copenhagen brought together 1,056 delegates from 103 economies, and our trainers ran 41 workshops in 29 countries worldwide. We also launched FIRST CORE with founding partner Fortinet, published our new Strategic Plan through 2028, welcomed four new Special Interest Groups, and inducted Rich Pethia, founder of the world's first CERT, into our Incident Response Hall of Fame. None of this happens without the trust and collaboration of our members. Thank you for another year of improving security together. 📖 Read the full Report: https://go.first.org/mMkDK #CSIRT #cybersecurity #IncidentResponse

The 2026 FIRST Regional Symposium for Latin America & the Caribbean is bringing cybersecurity and incident response professionals together in Mendoza, Argentina this October. Become a sponsor and help support meaningful conversations, knowledge sharing, and collaboration across the regional security community. 📅 October 21–22, 2026 📍 Mendoza, Argentina Interested in sponsoring? Learn more about the opportunities available: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dvCJRxRG #FIRSTLAC26 #FIRSTEvents #Cybersecurity #IncidentResponse #Sponsorship

🎥 #FIRSTCON26 talks are now on YouTube! Missed a session at FIRSTCON26 — or want to revisit a favorite? The TLP:CLEAR recorded talks are now available to watch on demand! Catch up on insights, discussions, and presentations from this year’s conference. 👇 Watch the FIRSTCON26 recordings on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/e6ez5uk3 #FIRSTCON26 #FIRST #Cybersecurity #IncidentResponse

🚨 Last Call: Apply for the Women of FIRST (WoF) Mentorship Program by August 31! 🚨 The deadline is approaching! August 31 is the final day to express your interest in participating in the inaugural Women of FIRST (WoF) Mentorship Program. While rooted in the Women of FIRST community, this program welcomes cybersecurity professionals of all backgrounds who are interested in learning, mentoring, and building meaningful connections across the global FIRST community. The mentorship experience is designed as a 6-9 month program for working professionals, providing opportunities to learn from others, share experiences, and build valuable connections across the cybersecurity ecosystem. Whether you're looking to accelerate your career, develop new skills, expand your network, or give back through mentoring, this program offers support and growth opportunities at every stage of your professional journey. Participants will have the opportunity to: Gain guidance from experienced cybersecurity leaders Expand their professional network across the FIRST community Develop leadership and career-planning skills Share expertise and support the growth of fellow cybersecurity professionals Build lasting connections with peers and mentors Together, we're creating more than a mentorship program. We're building a community that connects, empowers, and supports cybersecurity professionals throughout the FIRST ecosystem. ⏰ Don't miss your chance to be part of the inaugural cohort. Applications close on August 31. If you're interested in participating as a mentor or mentee, please complete the interest survey today: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eEdG4bHP The survey closes August 31. Submit your interest before the deadline!

The #FIRSTCTI27 Program Committee Call for Interest is open! Bring your expertise, help shape the content, and support the global CTI community. 🔗For more information 👉 https://go.first.org/IrZU7 📅 Deadline: September 15, 2026 #CTI #InfoSec #CyberThreatIntelligence

🌎 In this week's "Improving Security Across Nations with FIRST" video series, we spotlight Tom Millar, Cybersecurity Senior Advisor at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Co-chair of the FIRST TLP SIG. He shares how a connected community turns individual insight into collective defense: 🚦 Trusted conversations at scale - Helped shape and standardize the Traffic Light Protocol through CISA and the FIRST TLP SIG, a simple set of labels that lets defenders share sensitive information safely, because the more frictionless trust becomes, the faster we can act 📋 Community-powered programs - The KEV Catalog and the CVE Program only work when the community participates; CISA recently launched an online form to make nominating vulnerabilities easier, and is transforming the CVE Program it has led for two decades 🤝 Networks that hold under pressure - When a chain of SharePoint vulnerabilities dropped on a Friday evening in summer 2025, relationships built over years let CISA notify hundreds of entities under active attack 📺 Watch to discover how Tom's journey from Air Force Korean linguist to defending critical infrastructure shows that the network you build is how the mission gets done. #CyberDefense #cybersecurity #infosec #security

The National CERT of the Republic of Serbia (SRB-CERT) has an unofficial motto: “knowledge is power”. More to the point, the team is focussed on sharing that knowledge with other people and, hence, on distributing the power. Their adaptive training sessions provide organizations with the knowledge they need. While it’s not possible for every team to reach the same number of sectors or have a large training platform, the idea is still the same. Knowledge is power, adaptability helps share that power.

🚨 Last Call: Apply for the Women of FIRST (WoF) Mentorship Program by August 31! 🚨 The deadline is approaching! August 31 is the final day to express your interest in participating in the inaugural Women of FIRST (WoF) Mentorship Program. While rooted in the Women of FIRST community, this program welcomes cybersecurity professionals of all backgrounds who are interested in learning, mentoring, and building meaningful connections across the global FIRST community. The mentorship experience is designed as a 6-9 month program for working professionals, providing opportunities to learn from others, share experiences, and build valuable connections across the cybersecurity ecosystem. Whether you're looking to accelerate your career, develop new skills, expand your network, or give back through mentoring, this program offers support and growth opportunities at every stage of your professional journey. Participants will have the opportunity to: Gain guidance from experienced cybersecurity leaders Expand their professional network across the FIRST community Develop leadership and career-planning skills Share expertise and support the growth of fellow cybersecurity professionals Build lasting connections with peers and mentors Together, we're creating more than a mentorship program. We're building a community that connects, empowers, and supports cybersecurity professionals throughout the FIRST ecosystem. ⏰ Don't miss your chance to be part of the inaugural cohort. Applications close on August 31. If you're interested in participating as a mentor or mentee, please complete the interest survey today: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eEdG4bHP The survey closes August 31. Submit your interest before the deadline!

Civil society organizations hold sensitive data on vulnerable populations and activists, but they rarely have security budgets that match the risk. In a perspective piece for Cybersecurity for NGOs: Attack Prevention and Threat Response, a new book from Protect.ngo. FIRST CEO, Chris Gibson makes the case that preparation, not budget size, is what determines whether an organization survives a cyberattack. His argument centers on three things NGOs can control: 1️⃣ Foundational security habits like network segmentation, multi-factor authentication, and retiring old credentials 2️⃣ Treating cybersecurity as a leadership issue rather than an IT problem, with response plans tested before a crisis hits 3️⃣ Building relationships with trusted incident response communities, like FIRST or regional CERTs, that provide real-time threat intelligence and peer support no single organization could develop alone Learn more: https://go.first.org/iY4k5 #cybersecurity #IncidentResponse