RSA Conference: The good, the breached and the partied.

Cyber Security, Entrepreneurs, Events, High Technology, Public Relations, Technology Posted May 18, 2018 by Kayla Krause

With RSA Conference in the rear-view mirror, we’ve taken the last couple of weeks to reflect on the news generated and topics of conversation that have since lingered within the industry. With five of CHEN PR’s clients attending, exhibiting, and presenting at RSA, we received a variety of feedback and heard for ourselves the buzz words and trends being discussed at the heart of one of the largest security conferences of the year.

Hot topics

Looking at the blog we wrote in February that forecasted what was expected from RSA, we weren’t too far off from predicted topics like IoT, bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain, GDPR, and others. Compliance is always an underlying theme that continues to present itself throughout these events, however, this year there seems to be more of an urgency around compliance that wasn’t there before – think: GDPR, which has a deadline that is just weeks away now; and has put events like Facebook’s recent privacy issues, and Twitter’s massive password reset, in a much different and more urgent light.

Matters like WannaCry and NotPetya continue to haunt conversations, not only as lessons-learned but as harbingers of things to come. Claroty’s Galina Antova uses NotPetya as an example that “can spill over into business and industrial networks” in an eWEEK article that does a great round-up of those kinds of cyberattacks and the physical threat they pose to systems. Automation was another dominant theme from RSA this year, as Mat Schwartz describes in his BankInfoSecurity article, using an attack like WannaCry to show how automated-learning efforts are critical for the future as a means of defense.

Now, some of these topics mentioned above may very well have been buzz worthy or something “hot” during RSA Conference week, but one conversation that needs to continue into the year and other security conferences to come is responsible marketing. As Flashpoint CMO Jen Leggio describes in a recent interview with Security Week, taking a more ethical approach to marketing may help everyone in the security long-run. While a vulnerability is often sensationalized for profit, marketers and other executives should instead be accountable for ethical disclosure and publicizing research. As vulnerabilities and breaches continue to happen, so will this thread of responsible marketing.

Party like a rockstar

Overall, RSA is a great place to meet other industry professionals, from engineers to executives, where conversation flows just as much as the drinks do. In this relaxed environment it appears the best ideas are created and sewn into future plans, which are often formed at the RSA parties. However, this year two parties stood out to CHEN PR – Flashpoint’s Ignite party had a great mix of people with various backgrounds who brought all-around awesome conversations; while Duo’s Decipher launch party was a massive success because of the brand new site and a good mix of generations, which prove for great collaboration.

Onto the next one

So, as we close the RSA Conference door and look ahead to the next big event of the year (cough, cough, Black Hat, cough, cough) we look forward to more brainstorming and continuing the security conversation. Hope to see y’all in August!