News

In July 2021, the TF-CSIRT community voted to establish a Foundation to support the future work of TF-CSIRT in a sustainable manner.  It may have seemed quiet since this vote, but lots of work has been going in between the potential partners of the Foundation and the existing TF-CSIRT Steering Committee.  RIPE NCC, GÉANT and the OCF Foundation are the current committed partners for this effort.

In September 2021 we even managed to partly meet face-to-face in Amsterdam to discuss the core principles with the partners and the Steering Committee.  The following core principles were agreed:

  • The Foundation will have a Supervisory Board, made up of one representative from each of the partners and three representatives elected from the community.
  • It will be possible to grow the Supervisory Board should additional partners be accepted into the Foundation.
  • The Foundation will have a Board of Directors, appointed by the Supervisory Board.
  • The Foundation will support Steering Committee(s) to oversee discrete pieces of work in the same form as the current TF-CSIRT Steering Committee.
  • The Board of Directors will appoint a Secretariat for the Foundation and have the ability to support additional staffing as and when appropriate.
  • The partners will each put forward a proposal as to the commitments they can make to the Foundation in terms of financing and resourcing.
  • The Foundation will support the existing core tenants of TF-CSIRT (TF-CSIRT meetings, Trusted Introducer, TRANSITS) but may also support and add other activities.

Following this meeting, the first draft of new bylaws for the Foundation have been created and shared with the partners for comment.  These will be discussed further with the partners and an appointed notary in January.

From September onwards, all fees for Trusted Introducer will be invoiced by the new organisation and no longer by GÉANT.  Teams may wish to think about what might need to be changed with their finance teams in terms of paying a new supplier and registering in appropriate systems – more information on this will be shared as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about the current work to secure the future of TF-CSIRT please do not hesitate to reach out to the TF-CSIRT Secretary (nicole.harris@geant.org) or any of the members of the Steering Committee.