I attended my first RSA Conference in 1997. While sessions have changed over the years, the reason why I attend remains the same – I want to learn, but also want to be challenged on expected industry norms. I want to hear fresh, diverse perspectives even on evergreen topics. This year, geopolitics, privacy, incident response and government regulation are just a few of the topics that interest me. Looking at the final agenda, I wanted to share the sessions that I found most notable (seats for all sessions are filling up quickly – if you haven’t already reserved your seats, I recommend that you do soon):
💼 CEO Panel: The Entrepreneur Journey to Scale: Today there are more than 3000 cybersecurity companies in the industry. You may start a company with an altruistic mission to solve a complicated security problem, but to deliver on that promise you need to navigate fast-changing market conditions, fluctuating customer demand and other business challenges. In CEO Panel: The Entrepreneur Journey to Scale, the panelists including Ellison Anne Williams, Founder and CEO of Enveil, will share lessons learned as well as successes.
🔥 Playing with Fire? The Latest Cyber Law Hot Topics: Cyber law is constantly evolving as the line continues to shift towards holding organizations more accountable for data breaches, stolen data and much more. In fact, the SEC recently charged Blackbaud for misleading disclosures about a 2020 ransomware attack. Where is the line holding today – and what can we expect tomorrow? This session will focus on critical emerging issues – systems of trust, privacy and surveillance, the transformational role of AI, and C-Suite cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
🚙 Nation-State at Fault: The Future of Automotive Accidents?: Electric vehicles – and their entire ecosystem – represent a new and dangerous target for sophisticated adversaries. Last year the U.S. Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories warned in a report entitled, “Cybersecurity for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure,” that there is an “incomplete industry understanding of the attack surface, interconnected assets, and unsecured interfaces.” Looking forward to learning what’s next for this fast-growing attack surface.
🛡 Real World Stories of Incident Response and Threat Intelligence: If you have worked through an actual security incident, you know, first-hand, the difficulty of managing a response. Since these stories are rarely shared publicly, this session provides a unique opportunity to hear some real-world investigations. I’m particularly happy to see Wired senior reporter Lily Hay Newman as moderator. Newman has been covering the cybersecurity beat for many years. I wish we could see more cybersecurity journalists on the stage.
🤝 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: The Paradoxical Effect & Impact on Security: Looking forward to hearing from this panel about the importance of creating diverse teams to successfully combat cyberattacks, why the current approach taken by most organizations is failing, and what we can –and should – do differently.
🔮 Cyber Safety Review Board: Looking Back to Move Forward: Over the past years, we have seen a considerable increase in government-backed security initiatives. Last summer The Cyber Safety Review Board issued its first report on Log4j and is currently working on a second report on Lapsus$, a global extortion-focused hacker group. How do these reports – and related activities – translate into better security for users? Board Chair Robert Silvers, DHS Under Secretary for Policy, will share insights and set expectations for desired outcomes.
🥷 The Promise and Peril of a UN Cybercrime Treaty: International cooperation to combat cybercrime is not new. Nearly every day there are headlines touting how Europol, the FBI and other international government agencies worked together to make arrests, seize assets and take other steps to counter cybercrime. Do we need a UN Cybercrime Treaty – and, if so, what’s at stake?
