First things first: Kaspersky ICS CERT becomes new member of the global Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST)

After rigorous assessment, Kaspersky’s Industrial Systems Emergency Response Team (ICS CERT) has officially joined FIRST – the global Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams – the leading international technical group of 540 government and private accredited CERTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams). Within membership in the Forum, Kaspersky will share its expertise and cooperate with the wider IT security community to jointly make the world a safer place.

As a company that sees cooperation and trusted communities as the most effective way to negate global digital security challenges, Kaspersky aims to intensify information exchanges with other cybersecurity actors around the world to jointly access and mitigate cyberthreats. International cooperation is even more important in protecting the digital industrial environment, which often represents critical infrastructure serving the key needs of societies and even whole nations. The FIRST membership allows the company’s ICS CERT, among others, to accelerate communication with the world’s best security incident response teams, exchange ideas, and share best practices.

“We are honored to be a part of FIRST – the global communication platform for incident response teams and individual cybersecurity experts. With the potential for incident consequences amplified because of the pandemic, it is even more important for the cybersecurity community to stick together and join forces against cybercrime. Our membership also reaffirms that both our expertise and our internal processes meet the highest industry standards. By expanding our communication network, Kaspersky will be better able to safeguard organizations against today’s emerging cyberthreats,” says Evgeny Goncharov, Head of Kaspersky ICS CERT.

Serge Droz, Chair of FIRST: “Kaspersky has always been an important member of the Info-Sec community, and I’m excited to have them join forces with us. I’m particularly delighted because Kaspersky was one of the first organizations to support our code of ethics.”

FIRST aspires to bring together incident response and security teams from every country across the world to ensure a safe internet for all. Founded in 1990, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) consists of internet emergency response teams from 540 corporations, government bodies, universities and other institutions across 95 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceania.

Kaspersky recognizes the borderless nature of cybercrime and shares its expertise, knowledge and technical findings with the world’s security community on a constant basis. As a global cybersecurity company Kaspersky collaborates with global IT and OT vendors, international organizations, including INTERPOL and Europol, national and regional regulators and law enforcement agencies, as well as other cybersecurity research teams and individual experts all over the world in the fight against cybercriminals.