The world's biggest cybersecurity gathering – the annual RSA Conference 2016 – concluded last week in San Francisco and witnessed the large influx of crowd pass through its doors. Every year, the event attracts tech journalists, security vendors, government stakeholders and infosec startups who use the conference as a launchpad to showcase their innovative products.Besides for the fact that the conference marked its 25th year of happening this year, the event this time was no different. It witnessed the participation of 500 vendors and close to 40,000 participants, which is reportedly 15% more than the previous years. Below, we recap the event by outlining the major takeaways that experts in the RSA Conference imparted this year. Have a read:
1. Comodo announced the launching of Comodo Dome, a secure cloud-based web platform that provides a module solution for ISPs, MSPs, and businesses of all sizes. The SaaS solution lets enterprises “layer in” different modules such as bandwidth management, advance threat protection, data loss prevention, antispam and firewall management.
The solutions will enable Comodo's customers to authenticate and validate their most critical information.
2. The controversy surrounding the legal stand-off between Apple and FBI dominated the event, overshadowing most of the debates, interactive sessions, and speeches from keynote speakers. Echoing Obama government's stance on the issue, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said that the federal government and the tech industry should find a middle ground to resolve the tussle over the encryption debate.
“I know that neither our technology companies nor their leaders have any sympathy for terrorists or criminals who target Americans,” Ms. Lynch said, referring to the San Bernardino terrorist shooting that sparked the encryption debate earlier this year.
3. Infosec experts, once again, reiterated the need to have a strong human link to safeguard the security chain in any network. Amit Yoran, RSA President, in his keynote speech pointed out that superior technology does not guarantee safer networks, but educated minds do.
Another industry expert, Mark McLaughlin, CEO at Palo Alto Networks, piggybacked on Yoran's concerns adding, “The government needs to teach its citizens, parents need to teach their children, and employers need to teach their employees about hygiene in the digital age.”
4. Experts' concerns didn't go completely unheard, because for the time in its history, the RSA Conference introduced an interactive program called “CyberSmart: Parents Education Workshop” that aims to teach parents how to guide their kids to use technology safely.
Likewise, the event also launched “Security Scholars Program” that brought cybersecurity students from participating schools to take part in the conference activities.
5. On the first day of the event, IBM announced its plans to acquire Resilient Systems, that showcased a new version of Incident Response Platform aimed to provide cyber solutions for mid-size enterprises.
Similarly, Intel Security announced its partnership with BT to combine their intelligence tools in order to provide real-time security services for their clients.