<![CDATA[📬 FIRST's Q1FY26 Newsletter is here, and it's packed.]]>

FIRST's Q1FY26 Newsletter is here, and it's packed.

Here's a look at what's inside:

On Vulnerabilities & VulnCon

FIRST Chair Olivier Caleff reflects on VulnCon 2026 and what it means for how CSIRTs approach vulnerability management, from prioritization to escalation to the evolving role of EPSS in daily operations.

Global Policy & the UN Cybersecurity Mechanism

FIRST is engaging with the newly launched UN Global Cybersecurity Mechanism (G-Mech), bringing operational incident response expertise to international policy discussions.

Member Spotlight: Koen Van Impe

20+ years in cybersecurity, a core contributor to the MISP project, and a tireless open-source advocate.

Koen's work is a reminder of what community-first contribution looks like in practice.

SIG Updates

STP SIG published a white paper, authored by AUSCERT, on the future of CERTs/CSIRTs/ISACs
Vulnerability SIG forecast report predicted 2026 will be the first year to exceed 50,000 published CVEs
CTI SIG launched new educational videos and a blog series
NETSEC SIG published guidance on characterizing abusive IP proxies
Metrics SIG released Version 1.0 of Metrics for the FIRST CSIRT Services Framework

Community & Capacity Building

FIRST CORE welcomed support from the Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation through the newly launched Common Good Cyber Fund.

In two years, FIRST's Africa Regional Liaison initiative has worked with 1,210 cybersecurity professionals and delivered 50+ initiatives across 33 countries.

Events & Conferences

A strong start to the year with three Technical Colloquia: Paris, Bangalore, and Uzbekistan, each bringing together regional communities to share lessons on resilience, AI, and cyber response.

FIRST also announced its three flagship 2026 conferences: VulnCon (Scottsdale), the CTI Conference (Munich), and the 38th Annual Conference (Denver).

Looking Ahead

The 2026 FIRST AGM takes place June 15 during the Annual Conference in Denver and will also be streamed for remote observation.

Members, make sure your voting rep is updated before May 12!