In February 2004, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates made headlines when he keynoted the RSA Conference, for the first time, to talk about the company’s Trustworthy Computing initiative. Now, twenty years later, for the first time, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will keynote. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will keynote the next morning, where he will speak on “Homeland Security in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” 

Security vendors and researchers no longer are dominating the conversation at the RSA Conference. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in public sector officials speaking at both Black Hat and the RSA Conference. Yet this is the first time that a secretary of state will speak at #RSAC and underscores the critical role that cybersecurity plays in our national security.

In addition to the secretary of state, speakers from the NSA, CISA and the White House will be speaking on a wide range of topics, from the “State of the Hack 2024” to “A World on Fire: Playing Defense in a Digitized World… and Winning,” with the latter conversation will feature both CISA head Jen Easterly and her predecessor, former CISA head Chris Krebs, moderated by Washington Post reporter Joe Menn.  

Greater collaboration between the private and public sector will be one of the key takeaways from the show. The risk of AI will dominate the conversations on the stage and show floor, although the use of AI by threat actors “has so far been mostly theoretical and experimental,” according to the Verizon DBIR 2024 published last week. In the meantime, the DBIR revealed that the exploitation of vulnerabilities as an initial access step for a breach grew by 180%— almost triple that of last year— fueled in part by the MOVEit vulnerability and several other zero-day exploits used by ransomware actors. Security vendors will use this news to put a spotlight on the importance of good cybersecurity hygiene. Other timely topics such as election security and ransomware will make headlines coming out of the show.  

With 15-time GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and Emmy award-winning actor Jason Sudekis also expected to deliver keynotes, this year’s RSA Conference will not only inform but also entertain. 

As always, it is ultimately the “power of community” that makes the RSA Conference a “must-attend” event every year. Security practitioners are masters of their craft who are committed to their mission to making the Internet safer for all users. The Big Valley team members too are masters of their craft, steeped in cybersecurity domain expertise and working closely with our cybersecurity clients to achieve their business objectives.  

Want to learn more?  Meet us at the show – email me at kburke@bigvalley.co to schedule some time together.