Membership Process at a glance
FIRST welcomes new members. There are two categories of membership:
- Full Members are security incident response teams who assist a defined constituency in preventing and handling security-related incidents;
- Liaison Members: individuals that have a legitimate interest in and value to FIRST.
Both types of members are able to enjoy the benefits of FIRST membership, such as access to the FIRST MISP instance, Slack Workspace, Groups and mailing lists, and other services. Only Full Members have voting rights and discounted conference registration fees.
New members must be sponsored by existing Full Members:
- Two sponsors for new Full Members;
- One nomination for new Liaison Members.
A detailed guide on Membership Sponsoring Process for teams can be found here
- If support is needed to find an existing FIRST Full Member as sponsor for your own application, please do not hesitate to contact the FIRST Secretariat (first-sec@first.org), and we can help identify potential sponsors. At least one sponsor (primary) must be from outside the parent/host organization and perform a site visit. Read more about Site Visit requirements.
More detailed information for potential members is available at the FIRST Membership Process section.
At their April 2020 meeting, the Board voted to suspend the requirement for a physical site visit for applying members until further notice. Sponsoring teams may conduct a virtual site visit. Please note additional considerations for virtual site visit here.
New Full Member Applications
- Find two existing Full Members to nominate/vouch for your team ("sponsors")
Note the primary sponsor must be outside the parent/host organization
- Complete the online application form
- Perform a SIM3 self-assessment
- Primary sponsor to conduct a Site Visit and submit the report and checklist (link)
- Provide all the mandatory information requested in support to your nomination (see Section 2.1.2 of the FIRST Membership Process document for details)
- Both sponsors to attach a letter of support to the application on the portal
- Provide any additional information requested by FIRST
- Submit the completed application
New Liaison Member Applications
- Find one existing Full Member for your nomination ("sponsor").
- Complete the online application form
- Provide all the mandatory information requested in support to your nomination (see Section 2.1.2 of the FIRST Membership Process document for details).
- Sponsor to attach a letter of support to the application on the portal
- Provide any additional information requested by FIRST
- Submit application via the FIRST Portal
The Secretariat will begin the review process at the end of each month. The Membership Committee will review prior to posting for comments from the membership. The Board will review/approve applications during their monthly meeting and approved teams will be notified and invoiced.
