Best Talks at FIRSTCON26 — 38th Annual FIRST Conference

Hand-picked from in-depth reviewer verdicts — the top 12 talks from this conference. Skip the noise, find the signal.

← All talks at FIRSTCON26 — 38th Annual FIRST Conference

1

The Vulnerability Identity Crisis

Art Manion, Jay Jacobs

In "The Vulnerability Identity Crisis," Art Manion and Jay Jacobs present their ongoing work to establish a robust, structural, and foundational definition of a vulnerability. Their research, spanning several years and previous presentations at Voncon, highlights a critical…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
2

Can a General-Purpose LLM Do Tier-1 Triage?

Romulo Rocha

In an era where Security Operations Centers (SOCs) grapple with an overwhelming deluge of alerts and persistent analyst burnout, the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for enhanced threat detection and response is often touted as a panacea. Romulo Rocha of TandemTrace, a…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
3

One Poisoned Artifact Can Steer Your AI: How Robust Are Your LLM-Assisted Security Workflows?

Cheng-Lin Yang, Yen-Shan (Lily) Chen

In an era where Artificial Intelligence is rapidly integrating into critical enterprise functions, particularly in cybersecurity, the robustness and reliability of these systems are paramount. This talk, "One Poisoned Artifact Can Steer Your AI: How Robust Are Your LLM-Assisted…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
4

Proactive EDR Against Adaptive Evasion: Countering Self‑Modifying Agentic Malware

Hiroaki Toyota

In an era where artificial intelligence is rapidly integrating into everyday software and infrastructure, the cybersecurity landscape faces an unprecedented challenge: **agentic malware**. This talk, presented by Hiroaki Toyota, an AI Researcher at LAC Co., Ltd., at FIRSTCON…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
5

How Attackers Reconstruct You: Measuring Identity Exposure Across Four Attack Surfaces

Andreanne Bergeron

In an era of relentless data breaches, the sheer volume of exposed personal information has led to widespread fatigue among the general public, often resulting in a perceived loss of control over one's digital identity. Andreanne Bergeron's FIRSTCON talk, "How Attackers…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
6

Monday Keynote: Perseverance, Growth and Success. The Sunburst Story from the CISO perspective.

Tim Brown

Tim Brown, currently the CISO at Team8 and formerly the Chief Information Security Officer for SolarWinds, delivers a poignant and remarkably candid keynote address at FIRSTCON, recounting the harrowing experience of navigating the **Sunburst supply chain attack** in December…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
7

Panel: From Takedown to Touchpoint: An Inside Look at the Data-sharing Pipeline in the Victim ...

Tod Eberle, Adam Diament, Stu W, Stewart Garrick, Chris Butera

This panel discussion, "From Takedown to Touchpoint," delves into the often-unseen mechanisms by which data from law enforcement disruption operations is shared to facilitate victim notification. Moderated by Tod Eberle of The Shadowserver Foundation, the discussion features…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
8

The AI Assistant’s Betrayal: One-Click for AI to Turn into the Perfect Insider

Dolev Taler, Mark Vaitsman

In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants are rapidly integrating into daily personal and organizational workflows, a critical gap has emerged between their burgeoning usability and inherent security. This presentation, "The AI Assistant’s Betrayal: One-Click for…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
9

How EPSS Is Wrong and Useful at the Same Time

Jay Jacobs

In this compelling FIRSTCON talk, Jay Jacobs, a chief data scientist and one of the original creators of the **Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)**, delves into the paradox inherent in EPSS: how it can be both "wrong" and incredibly "useful" simultaneously. Jacobs…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
10

Seeing Through the Fog: Interpreting Entra ID Signals During AiTM Attacks

Pierre Audonnet

In this insightful FIRSTCON presentation, Pierre Audonnet, a Solution Engineer at Microsoft, delves into the escalating threat of **Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM)** attacks targeting **Microsoft Entra ID** (formerly Azure Active Directory). The talk, titled "Seeing Through the…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
11

Critical SaaS, Critical Blind Spots: A Detection Engineer's Field Guide to SaaS Attacks

Julie Agnes Sparks, Greg Foss

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications have become indispensable, yet they frequently represent critical blind spots for security teams. In their FIRSTCON talk, "Critical SaaS, Critical Blind Spots: A Detection Engineer's…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆
12

nx Compromise - AI as an Attack Vector

Olivia Brown

On August 26, 2025, the software supply chain was rattled by a sophisticated attack targeting **nx**, a widely adopted JavaScript build tool and monorepo framework. This talk, delivered by Olivia Brown, then a Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at Socket and a first responder to…

0 Dr. Zero STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆ H Heather Calloway STRONG ACCEPT ★★★★☆