Over 40,000 attendees descended in San Francisco over the last week for RSA Conference, the world’s leading information security conferences and expositions.
Records were set with the number of exhibitors in attendance along with overall number of sessions.
“The goal of RSA Conference is to bring the best content the cybersecurity industry has to offer across numerous platforms,” said Linda Martin, Director & General Manager of RSA Conference.
At RSAC 2018, intensified discussions were in the area of industrial IoT security to provide the trusted foundation for a new wave of innovation and automation; cloud and DevOps security, to real-world applications of machine learning.
Cybersecurity Tech Accord signed
One of the most significant developments at this 27th annual RSA Conference was when 34 technology companies came together in a self-governance move in signing the so-called Cybersecurity Tech Accord.
In this accord, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco and 31 other companies take up an official pledge of sorts to to “defend all customers everywhere from malicious attacks by cybercriminal enterprises and nation-states.”
Many view this industry-level, self-governance action to be response to the recent reports of cyber-meddling in the elections in many countries including the UK, and USA herself, as well as the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.
The Accord group met for the first time at RSA Conference to take proactive and collective action.
Apple, Amazon, Google and Twitter did not sign the initial accord, although the group’s announcement established that the Accord “remains open to consideration of new private sector signatories, large or small and regardless of sector.”
The only two foreign companies were telecommunications brands Nokia and Telefonica.
The accord was spurred in part by Microsoft President Brad Smith, who called for development of a “digital Geneva Convention” agreement that would establish behavioral norms in the digital world, much the way the Geneva Convention did for conventional warfare.
“The devastating attacks from the past year demonstrate that cybersecurity is not just about what any single company can do but also about what we can all do together.”
Whether the Accord ultimately proves to be a springboard to tech products being built with stronger security and privacy features remains to be seen, but for now, the fact that the tech world is looking to establish security and privacy as larger priorities can only be a positive development.
RSA Conference 2018 highlights
•over 700 speakers across 550+ sessions and more than 600 companies on the expo floors.
Seminar presentations included:
•Early Detections of Malicious Activity – Farsight Security
•Foundations of Bitcoin, Blockchain and Smart Contracts; HVF Labs and Scalar Capital
•Insights from NSA’s Cybersecurity Threat Operations Center
•Ransomware and Destructive Attacks Seminar – LEO Cyber Security
•BigID was named “RSA Conference 2018’s Most Innovative Startup” by the Innovation Sandbox’s judges’ panel comprised of technology, venture and security industry thought leaders.
