Welcome to day two, you guessed it, the second day of RSA. All this week Tech Herald will be on the floor and in the meeting rooms covering all the trends and breaking news that we can fit into a single day.
RSA is one of the largest security gatherings in the US for IT. This image brought to you by the letter "S" and the number "2". (IMG:J.Anderson)
As the day goes on, this post will be updated with news, conversations, photos and more.
6:30PM PST
This is the final update for day two.
Two more interviews down including a great meeting with TippingPoint and Bradford. You should expect some big things from these two if you manage a network that is a decent size.
Security is still pretty tight here, but it is safe to assume that this is because of Al "I dont like the press, so lets block them from covering my talk" Gore. At least the bomb squad is gone.
More interviews and updates and pictures tomorrow.
3:30PM PST
It is time for another update. The Bruce Schneier talk was interesting. The concept of security from the stance of psychology is great standpoint to take. However, while I like hearing Bruce talk, admittedly his talk was a work in progress and he was asking for feedback and suggestions toward the end. While this was not a negative, it left you with a feeling of "I get it, I'm sold, what next?"
Bruce said he will have the paper up on his site soon.
12:00PM PST
Michael Chertoff said that cyber security officials are attempting to develop an early warning system to detect cyber attacks. If you want more on this topic, keep waiting, because according to him the details are classified. Instead most of his speech was about the ramp-up of private sector hiring. The government is turning its eye to private sector security professionals and attempting to recruit them in order to beef up security staffing and protections.
11:45AM PST
Wanted to post up a quick second update to talk a little about Security 5 training from EC-Council. Security 5 is, in one word, unique. It offers the normal everyday "cubicle dweller" a prospective on security that is not technical, so much as it is simplified. If they can check email and surf the web, then they can take this class and get it. The design of the training is simple; it offers one unique way to solve the human factor, by teaching them how to spot Phishing emails, configure proper browser settings, what open file shares mean and more.
Random:
As may of you know Al Gore is coming to RSA, and today Michael Chertoff was here. The image below was the arrival of the bomb squad and bomb dogs, I took it because the first words out of some of the crowd were "should we leave?"
The response was simple, "That's a bomb tech, if he runs, then we all run"
10:10AM PST
There is buzz in the press room, (caused by the last minute press conference by Michael Chertoff, Secretary DHS.) and more items to cover.
8:45AM PST
John Thompson, CEO Symantec, always fun watching him talk. Stolen IDs were huge in 2007. 50 million people lost their identity in 2007, 3 people every second. (Symantec threat report.)
"According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse the number of exposed records tripled last year," Thompson said. "If ever there was a cry for a change in public policy, the time would be now."
John was speaking about consumer protection, and was glad to see that there are more than forty federal laws that protect consumers. However, forty separate laws is a bit of aq problem. "What we really need is a federal law that will set one very high standard to protect consumers regardless of where they live."
The attention of the entire IT industry is needed to address the problem. With that he announced that the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and programs of Cyber Security Industry Alliances (CSIA) joined together in order to create a powerhouse cyber security public advocacy and awareness program.
The keynote ended with the same upbeat measure that it started with. The overall aim was reached however. Security is an issue everyone needs to pay attention to. It isn't local, it is global and recent trends are proving this.
That and the High Warlord Thunder Fist is a killer toy to possess.
8:30AM PST
Day two at RSA is off to a rapid start. This morning I had a meeting with eEye Digital Security. The conference has picked up the pace, with all the companies in attendance and the crowds are growing too. A walk that should have taken seconds honestly took about five minutes.
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