Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is an international membership association and peer network for computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) and related security teams. It exists so that teams responding to security incidents can coordinate, share information, and limit the damage from attacks that cross national and organizational borders. FIRST was founded in 1990.
Why FIRST was created
FIRST’s own history traces the problem to the 1988 Internet worm, which affected major parts of the Internet. The response was isolated and uncoordinated, which meant duplicated effort and conflicting fixes. The CERT Coordination Center was formed soon afterward, and other response teams followed, each with its own constituency and operating arrangements. Differences in language, time zones, and international conventions made cooperation hard. The 1989 Wank worm made the need for better communication plain, and FIRST was formed in 1990 to meet it. The organization’s history page at https://www.first.org/about/history describes the idea as going back to 1989, while identifying 1990 as the founding year. When you cite the date, use 1990 for the organization and treat 1989 as the year the idea took shape.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
What FIRST is and what it is not
FIRST is an association and collaboration network. It is not a single national incident response team, a government agency, or a commercial security product. A CSIRT is one team that handles incidents for a particular organization, country, or customer base. FIRST is the forum those teams join to work with one another. Its members include CSIRTs and product security teams, and its wider peer network includes related groups described below.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Mission and work
FIRST’s vision, stated on its vision and mission page, is to bring together incident response and security teams from every country to help ensure a safe internet. The published mission rests on three areas.
#1 Best Overall
Global coordination
FIRST provides platforms, means, and tools that help responders find the right partner and work together when an incident crosses borders.
Global language
FIRST supports a common understanding among teams through training and initiatives on common data-transfer methods, so that an incident report from one team can be read and acted on by another.
Policy and governance
FIRST engages technical and nontechnical stakeholders so that teams can work in an environment suited to their goals.
Frameworks and community resources
FIRST develops and supports reference material for the community. The most widely used is the CSIRT Services Framework. It sets out a structured list of service categories and definitions that a team can use to choose or improve its service portfolio. It works as a shared vocabulary and a starting point. It does not prescribe one way of implementing a service, and it does not assess a team’s capability, maturity, or quality.
Rank #3
Version 1.1 was announced on May 24, 2017, in a FIRST press release. In that announcement, Serge Droz, then a member of the FIRST Board of Directors, said: “Version 1.1 of the Services Framework is a major development over the previous release. The framework’s use exceeded our expectations by far and is today helping to contribute to a more capable incident response community in ways we had not originally envisioned.”
The framework PDF available at the time of writing is listed as version 2.0.1 (Review), at https://www.first.org/standards/frameworks/csirts/FIRST_CSIRT_Services_Framework_v2.0.pdf. Because a “Review” label marks a version that may still change, check the FIRST standards pages before treating any version as final.
Who participates
FIRST brings together incident response and product security teams from government, commercial, educational, and academic organizations. Its 2024 annual report describes peer-to-peer collaboration that also includes information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs), security operations centers (SOCs), and independent security researchers.
FIRST publishes a public team directory of participating teams and their contact details. The directory states that those details are for incident response purposes and prohibits solicitation and marketing. Anyone using the directory should respect that restriction.
Best Value
Membership figures and dates
Membership counts change, and FIRST sources do not always use the same date or the same category. The table below lists each figure with its source and date so you can see which one applies to your purpose.
| Figure stated | Date of the figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| More than 800 members | Undated on the homepage | FIRST homepage |
| Over 800 member teams from more than 100 countries | Stated for the 2026 conference | 38th Annual FIRST Conference overview |
| 165 individual members and 762 teams in 111 countries | 2024 strategy document | Older FIRST strategy document; the category labels differ from current wording |
| Over 650 teams in over 100 countries | 2023 | A 2023 public relations request for proposals |
Because these figures use different dates and categories, quote one only with its date and source. Do not combine them into a single count.
Conference and events
FIRST runs an annual conference. Its 2026 edition, the 38th Annual FIRST Conference, is framed as a forum for worldwide coordination and cooperation among incident response teams. Check the conference overview for current dates and venue, because those details change from year to year.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Key points to remember
- FIRST stands for Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.
- It was founded in 1990 after the 1988 and 1989 worm incidents exposed coordination gaps.
- It is a network of teams, not a team itself and not a product.
- Its CSIRT Services Framework is a vocabulary and starting point, not a maturity assessment.
- Membership totals depend on the date and source, so always cite both.
Readers who want to see the organization’s own description can start with the About FIRST page.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
