Security Watch | Matt Hines » Innovation, regulation and research on tap at RSA 2008

April 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Innovation, regulation and research on tap at RSA 2008

TAGS: Security

The IT security industry is again preparing for its biggest show of the year, as the RSA 2008 conference is set to go off Tuesday-Friday next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Roughly 14 months after the last iteration of the show -- which was previously held in mid-February -- conference organizers are putting the finishing touches on a program that will include the traditional mix of security researchers, technology vendors and government lawmakers, but much less focus on infrastructure defense.

Crafted around a theme that aims to recall the boundless curiosity of computer science and cryptography genius Alan Turing, show planners said that they will welcome a record 17,000-plus registered attendees, along with 350 individual technology providers who have reserved demonstration space on the conference floors.

With speakers ranging from little-known researchers to industry leaders including Symantec CEO John Thompson, in addition to a noticeable government presence in the form of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the scheduled events run the full gamut of topics considered most relevant to the IT security and regulatory compliance sectors today.

As a colleague of mine who printed out the online program before realizing its 30-page length remarked to me yesterday, this is not a show that lacks for content.

In addition to the parties already named, executives from RSA parent EMC, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and a number of other vendors, large and small, will speak, along with representatives from law enforcement, nonprofits including the Center for Democracy and Technology, academics hailing from schools such as UPenn, and generally interesting people like "Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell.

Timely sessions will include discussions on IT security issues surrounding the Olympics, the 2008 presidential election, and questions around warrant-less wiretapping -- giving the show a tangible government flavor, especially considering the presence of Mssrs. Chertoff and Gore.

More light-hearted goings-on will include a daily "Security Smackdown" competition, which will include simulated Web site vulnerability testing and opportunities for audience members to win prizes by demonstrating their ability to either diagnose or solve the presented problems.

One of the major efforts behind planning RSA 2008 was an attempt to make the show more relevant to security researchers, said Tim Mather, chief security strategist for the conference.

A new "Research Revealed" track will take specific aim at drawing more of the experts to the confab than in years past, perhaps in a nod to the growing popularity of the annual Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas.

RSA has traditionally drawn more of a business crowd, but typically also features some bleeding-edge research. On the flip side, the summertime Black Hat show, initially the domain of researchers, has been attracting more of a business crowd in recent years

"The program is designed to help highlight the incredible work researchers are doing, it's not as much focused on attacks and vulnerabilities as they exist in specific instances, and we also have technical presentations on the Storm botnet and how it works, the protocols it uses and the encryption, but in this case the [new track] is looking more at classes of vulnerabilities," Mather said.

Some of the conference may be aimed at politically-charged topics like e-voting, the election and wiretapping, but the show isn't taking sides, even around the most controversial issues, the organizer said.

"There are discussions about security from a law standpoint, and compliance, and e-discovery and electronic evidence -- people are just trying to figure out what all that means," he said. "With wiretapping, we're not looking to bash President Bush, the law is several decades old and there have been significant changes in technology; the issue is whether or not the existing laws can handle those technological changes, or whether we need to move to new framework."

All of the hot topic areas where security is being eyed closely in terms of its relation to emerging technologies will be covered -- virtualization, Web 2.0, social networking, VoIP, SOA, mobility -- the full boat.

Another broad topic of the show will be information assurance, in all its forms, including applications security, data loss prevention, and data classification.

Mather and RSA Conference vice president Sandra Toms LaPedis said that the planning committee has spent more time vetting presentations, reviewing technical programs to ensure high levels of rigor, and generally making things more exciting than in any year past.

It should be fun to see what they've come up with. See you there.

Posted by Matt Hines on April 4, 2008 08:36 PM

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