RSA Conference Provides Comprehensive Look at the State of Security

The world’s largest IT security conference showcases new Internet of things risks, debates on privacy and some Hollywood show business too.

RSA Conference 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the security event and managed to completely fill the North, South and West buildings of San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

Keynotes are a highlight for many who attend the RSA Conference in any given year, and the 2016 event was no exception. Among the major technology leaders giving keynotes this year were Mark McLaughlin, CEO of Palo Alto Networks; Michael Brown, CEO of Symantec; and Martin Fink, CTO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

In the opening keynote of the RSA Conference, Amit Yoran, president of RSA Security, told the audience that it’s time for both IT security vendors and practitioners to wake up to the modern reality of threats.

U.S. Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, delivered the message that he wants to work with the technology industry to help defend both the security and privacy of Americans.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter detailed the new “Hack the Pentagon” effort, aimed at engaging security researchers in helping identify potential security vulnerabilities.

Christopher Young, senior vice president and general manager at Intel Security, used his time on the RSA Conference keynote stage to discuss the challenge of and opportunities for hiring and training IT security talent.

In a keynote, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, discussed his company’s Distributed Network Encryption (DNE) effort, which aims to secure virtual machine workloads. VMware has been talking about DNE since at least 2015 as a way to improve data center security.

This year’s RSA Conference also included an Internet of things (IoT) playroom that showcased vulnerabilities in connected devices. Among the devices shown were a number of children’s toys that could have exposed user information to risk.

One of the IoT vulnerabilities on display was an attack against a connected Kettle (iKettle) that potentially could have enabled a hacker to gain unauthorized access to a user’s network.

The breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in 2015 exposed nearly 26 million Americans to risk. Passages, one of the exhibitors on the RSA Conference show floor, attempted to market to those victims by claiming that identity theft monitoring isn’t enough.

While the FBI’s legal battle with Apple resonated throughout the keynotes and sessions, the bureau was also an exhibitor at the RSA Conference. As has been the case the last several years of the conference, the FBI had a vintage Tommy gun on display.

At its both at the RSA Conference this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security talked to attendees about what it does and the programs it offers to help keep us all safe.

The National Security Agency set up a booth in the exhibit halls of the Moscone Center to explain its mission of information assurance.

A number of booths on the RSA Conference show floor were set up to highlight vendors from certain countries. Among them was the Israel booth, where vendors detailed their offerings.

Technology vendors from South Korea detailed their capabilities to RSA Conference 2016 attendees.

Although not quite as large as the Israel and Korea booths, the UK was also present on the show floor highlighting its security vendors.

Among the more interesting booths at the show this year was that of security vendor ThreatTrack, which used the idea of Game of Threats (an obvious nod to the popular fantasy series “Game of Thrones”) to attract attendees.

With the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” film recently in theaters, there was no shortage of Star Wars-themed booths and giveaways. Network security vendor A10 had a Star Wars-themed virtual slot machine that it used to award prizes to attendees.

Juniper Networks had a Star Wars Lego giveaway at its booth in an attempt to attract RSA Conference attendees.

Infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick posed for pictures at the KnowBe4 booth, helping to boost visibility for the company’s security awareness training services.

A panel that included the executive producer and actors from the TV drama “CSI: Cyber” talked about how real their show is and how they hope it will impact the IT security industry.