Highlights of the RSA conference 2018, San Francisco
The growth of various security attacks in information systems and data has brought cybersecurity to the limelight. Cybersecurity typically involves integrity, confidentiality and availability (ICA) of information. It represents the ability to defend against and recover from security incidents. There are multiple courses and conferences which get deeper into cybersecurity. In this context, RSA is a conference which deals with everything security.
RSA conference is a series of IT security conferences and occurs in multiple locations across the world. The most recent RSA conference was at San Francisco attended by 42,000 people and with a record number of (600+) exhibitors. There was an array of 17 keynotes and more than 550 sessions on topics related to cybersecurity.
While the conference covered a diverse range of topics, there were a few dominant themes. A primary focus of the booths was various AI/ML mechanisms for threat containment including threat feeds and user behaviour analytics. The dominance of cloud was also evident in the booths with many companies catering to cloud and cloud application security. There was also the occasional booth which covered the basics of cryptography in encryption as well as hardware-based random number generators addressing IOT needs. While the number of booths across the multiple halls at the Moscone centre was numerous, the skew in the products was most noticeably towards the AI/ML related products.
The conference also had a range of topics presented and discussed across the week. Amongst the various talks, the crypto panel stands out with its celebrity panel from the security industry. The panel started off on a light note with a deliberation on reclaiming the term “crypto” from the bitcoin world, the various suggestions mostly humorous and harmless included one to use differential pronunciations. The discussion covered a few key trends/hot areas in security and was very engaging.
Besides the keynotes, a range of topics and tracks were covered at the conference from cryptography to risk compliance by various industry leaders. Most of the videos are available for viewing on the internet. Initially, the conference caught some press attention for the gender gap in its keynote speakers but attempted to recover some ground by addressing the diversity discussion in the various sessions. As John N. Stewart (Senior Vice PresidentChief Security and Trust Officer, Cisco) mentions, only 11% of the security industry is currently comprised of women and adding diversity through various high school level programs has become a priority. The increasing scale, complexity and intensity of security attacks also led to the opening of 80,000 jobs in the last year. The roles could not be filled due to a shortage of trained people in the field. This skills gap is only growing wider with an estimated 3.5 million jobs coming up in the security space by 2021. The rising demand followed by the need for skilled professionals in this area, signals an opportune time to learn and join the cybersecurity world.
#LeanInWiTI #LeanIn #WomeninTechIndia #technoreads
