RSA Conference 2018: Finding the Silver Linings in Cyber-Security

The annual RSA Conference ran from April 16 to 20 in San Francisco, filling the cavernous halls of the North, South and West buildings of the Moscone Center, as well as conference space at the nearby Marriott Marquis Hotel. More than 42,000 attendees were at the event, which had over 550 sessions and 600 companies exhibiting across the show floors. Rohit Ghai, president of RSA, kicked of the conference with a keynote address in which he emphasized the “silver linings” in modern security. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen had a bit of a more sombre tone, warning adversaries that the United States would respond to any cyber-attacks. In this slide show, eWEEK looks at some of the highlights of the RSA Conference 2018 event.

Once again, the RSA Conference was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, which remains under active construction.

RSA President Rohit Ghai detailed in his opening keynote at the conference a number of silver linings in modern cyber-security that give defenders the advantage over attackers.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen had a bit of a more sombre tone in her keynote, warning adversaries that the U.S. will respond to any cyber-attacks.

Those on the annual cryptographers’ panel discussed multiple topics, including whether or not cyber-security will get better. Adi Shamir (the “S” in RSA) jokingly commented that the silver lining he sees in cyber-security is that job security is guaranteed.

Ten startups participated in the annual RSAC Innovation Sandbox contest, showcasing their technologies. The winner of the event was BigID, which helps organizations discover personally identifiable information from both structured and unstructured data.

During one session, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Chief Information Security Officer Stephen Schmidt outlined best practices that can help reduce risk and improve cloud application resiliency.

Former NSA Director General Keith Alexander and Nadav Zafrir, former commander of Israel’s 8200 Intelligence Unit, shared their views on nation-state threats and the future of cyber-security.

General Alexander’s former employer, the National Security Agency (NSA), was also at the RSA Conference, with a booth in the exhibit hall.

The Industrial Control System (ICS) Village came to the RSA Conference, providing attendees with the opportunity to learn about industrial cyber-security concerns.

Among the interesting booths in the exhibit hall was one that had the sign “FAKE Security.” The booth included giveaways of snake-oil bottles claiming to solve all kinds of cyber-security ailments. Although there was no indication in the Fake Security booth itself, it was run by cyber-security vendor Authentic8, which develops secure browser isolation technologies.

RSA Conference 2019 has been scheduled for March 4-9, 2019.