RSA Conference 2017: From Cryptography to Mysteries of the Universe

This year’s RSA Conference, held Feb. 13-17 in San Francisco, saw more than 43,000 attendees show up to learn about the latest security trends, products and services. Among the annual traditions at the RSA Conference is the Cryptographers Panel, which includes Ron Rivest (the “R” in RSA) and Adi Shamir (the “S” in RSA). The cryptographers are not particularly enthusiastic about the modern state of security, with Shamir claiming that the internet as we know it is broken. Also at the conference, former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) chief Gen. Keith Alexander talked about how the cloud can help enable a common defense for organizations of all sizes. Meanwhile at a VIP event at the RSA Conference, Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, spoke about new innovations from RSA as well as his company’s broader approach to securing IT assets and information.

Those on the annual Cryptographers Panel weren’t overly enthusiastic about the current state of internet security. In particular, Whitfield “Whit” Diffie was even less optimistic than his peers about the modern state of security. “I think we’re doing everything wrong,” Diffie said. “If the resources spent on virus screening were spent on improving the logical functioning of devices, which is about improving programming, we’d get much better results.”

While nation-states are actively using cyber weapons, former NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander sees the cloud as being a real benefit. “For small and midsized companies, moving to the cloud makes the greatest sense in the world,” Alexander said.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, used his time on the 2017 RSA Conference keynote stage to propose a “Digital Geneva Convention” to protect individuals and businesses from nation-state cyber-attacks.

At a VIP event during the RSA Conference, Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, detailed his company’s overall security strategy. “We have a broad set of capabilities from the data center to the client to security services and products that allows customers of all sizes to make sure their most valuable data is protected,” Dell said.

Elie Bursztein, anti-fraud and abuse research team lead at Google, detailed the many technologies and processes that Google uses to protect Gmail users and the service itself from exploitation. At this point in 2017, he said that 80 percent of inbound email to Gmail inboxes is encrypted, while 87 percent of outbound email is encrypted.

While the Stagefright vulnerability in Google’s Android mobile operating system made headlines in 2015, Adrian Ludwig, director of Android security at Google, said that no actual users were ever confirmed to be exploited.

On the RSA Conference exhibitor floor, the NSA showcased a number of its efforts, including the open-source unfetter project that aims to help security professionals identify and analyze defensive gaps.

Among the unusual security technology vendors on the RSA Conference exhibitor floor was Dedrone. Dedrone provides an aerial intrusion prevention system to help protect organizations against unauthorized drone flights.

As has been the case in recent years, the 2017 RSA Conference once again did not provide attendees with a secured WiFi network. Rather, the network was open, without any encryption, leaving the onus of security on users.

Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson entertained and educated RSA Conference attendees in a keynote where he detailed the latest news from the world of astronomy.

The 2017 RSA Conference was somewhat earlier in the year than past RSA Conferences. For 2018, the conference will run later, from April 16 to 20.