■About FIRST■Annual FIRST Conference

When dealing with incidents and problems occurring on

FIRST conducts a wide variety of activities between members,

the Internet, it is necessary to cooperate with many otherfrom online discussion to face-to-face meetings. FIRST hostsorganizations to take appropriate measures. Although incidents

several meetings per year, the largest of which is the Annual

are becoming more localized nowadays, this cooperation

FIRST Conference. The Annual FIRST Conference has been

is still very useful, because for instance, understanding

held every June, in various cities throughout the world. While

incidents that have occurred in other countries enables us tomost of FIRST’s activities are restricted only to members toprepare for future incidents. As an Internet service provider,maintain confidentiality of sensitive information, the Annual

IIJ participates in several international organizations to take

FIRST Conference is open to everyone who doesn't belong topart in such cooperation activities. Among such internationala member team*3, and its participants count approximately 400

organizations is FIRST*1.

every year.

FIRST was established in 1990 for the purpose of handling

The Annual FIRST Conference for this year, will be held ininternational incidents. In handling international incidents,

Kyoto from June 28 to July 3*4, 2009. As of this writing, somewhat is necessary is the cooperation of people with various

part*5 of the program has been published and the call forbackgrounds, who are from different cultures, are subject toparticipation is open.

different laws, use different languages, live in various timezones, have different roles, etc. To make such international

The program covers a wide variety of topics including

cooperation smooth and efficient, FIRST has several rules

technical topics as also discussed in other information security

including those to keep confidentiality of sensitive information

conferences, as well as information on situations of theand to use English as the official language.

attacker’s side, trends of international cooperation activities,
introduction to schemes and case studies of cooperation

FIRST is an organization ofCSIRTs*2

and consists of

between organizations of various types (such as national

approximately 200 member teams from various organizations

agencies, law-enforcement agencies, ISPs and productaround the world, including CSIRT specialized organizations,vendors), case studies of incident response based on actual

national security agencies, universities, research institutes,

experience of attacks, etc.

commercial companies, etc.
In addition, many of the participants as well as speakers are
the foremost security professionals; The Conference offers avaluable opportunity of such experts from around the world
gathering in Japan. We therefore urge you to participate in
the 21st Annual FIRST Conference, and take full advantage ofthis opportunity to learn the latest trends and build cooperative
relationships*6.

Author:Mamoru Saito
Division of Emergency Response and Clearinghouse for Security
Information, IIJ Service Business Department

*1*2
*3
*4*5
*6

http://www.first.org/

Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) is an expert group that handles incidents and problems in which computers are involved.
During the Conference, there are also some meetings restricted only to members (such as the Annual General Meeting).
http://conference.first.org/

http://conference.first.org/program/program.aspx

Please note that recording or taking pictures during the Conference is prohibited to keep confidentiality of anonymous presentation, mention ofsensitive information and such.

Vol.3 May 2009

23Internet Topics

Internet Topics: The 21st Annual FIRST Conference