Welcome to Day Four of RSA Live!
RSA is one of the largest security gatherings in the US for IT. Today\'s image was not brought to you today by American Airlines. (IMG:J.Anderson)
The conference is almost over, and as the day progresses you can tell that most of the hustle and bustle is slowing.
5:45PM PST
Day Four at RSA is officially complete. Most of the vendors are pulling out tonight and most of the attendees that are left over will attend the Codebreakers Bash starting at 7PM.
I had a great conversation with a biometrics firm, UPEK, and they explained some of the new uses for the technology in security. I have a follow-up meeting next week with them, at which time I will post a full report here.
Just one day left, and then RSA is officially complete. It should be pointed out that the wrap up tomorrow will be comprised of mostly images.
Enjoy the evening, not sure if I can get in to the Codebreakers Bash tonight, I don't know what they classify as business formal or party attire. (Jeans and dress shirt, I'm a geek after all.)
3:50PM PST
Met with Fortinet just a few minutes ago and had a chance to catch up with their VP Anthony James. The meeting went well, and the overall scope was to address how the SMB market can be better served with security. Let's face it, security can be expensive for the little guy. However, the little guy is who needs it the most. Enterprise IT can afford pretty much anything they want, but in the SMB market the administrator often has to pinch pennies and sell the product to the C-Level management. (CIO,CEO, and so on.)
Here at RSA Fortinet launched something that we will address next week, it offers both the security needed, and gives IT administrators or managers something they can take to the C-Level officers and stand a good chance of getting it added to the budget.
Speaking of Fortinet, you recall they won the Deep Throat contest yesterday held by Untangle. They topped out with 98% coverage, while WatchGuard came in close second with 96% according to the completed test results online.
Earlier I got an email from WatchGuard that pointed out some facts that were not covered during the testing. While the email detailed the steps to take allowing someone to throw the results of any test you could apply to the appliances, the point to remember is that yesterday, Untangle gave a basic test using the core function of the appliances.
There were not tests designed to fool the appliances, and no test designed to take advantage of any of the unique offerings by any of the appliances. The test was based on regular surfing habits that a typical user would use.
If you want to test the same sites on your own, Untangle has provided the test scripts as well as the results in full online.
I talked briefly with PC Tools as well on a random walk by at their booth. I managed to get some software for Tech Herald to test. You can expect a review soon on their new software.
12:05PM PST
The meeting with Commtouch was both informative and productive. OEM focused vendors are the backbone of the IT economy and in security almost everyone has something OEM in their appliance. Commtouch has close to 100 OEM partners, and in the reputation based sector deal with more email than you can count. (Billions of messages are scanned monthly.)
Walked the floor, and while there are more people here than this morning, the topic of conversation is focused on security and how to get home. By my count there are several hundred people, whole booths worth of staff, stranded because of American Air.
I met with The Info Pro who are based out of New York, they focus on mid-level research and collect data from the most valuable of group, actual IT workers. After that, Dave from Alcatel-Lucent gave me a heads up on some new security offerings, and Tom from WatchGuard showed me a new wireless appliance. (No Tom I still do not want one for the house.)
I talked to Steve Gindi from BorderWare and got the lowdown on their session on cyber threats and other trends. If I can get my hands on a copy of the talk, I will make sure you get to see it.
I still have more meetings to get to, expect another update soon.
9:30AM PST
The crowds are slowly but surely moving out of the city. There are a few last minute things to cover most of the attendees tell me; talks, meetings, and the like, however, most of the booth sales and marketing teams are already heading home and back to the office.
The problems at SFO (local airport) thanks to American Airlines are causing many people to scramble. If you are not aware, American Airlines has canceled almost eight hundred flights across the US, largely due to maintenance on the plane wiring systems. While you might think this is non-security news, the truth is keeping the wires and hardware in order, on or off a network, is just as important for securing what is most important to your business. In this case, the asset is the plane.
There are reports that almost 100,000 people are stranded now because of the cancelations. Yes, I too have an American Airline flight on Saturday, and I have no idea if I will become one of the stranded masses.
I am about to meet with Rebecca, VP for Commtouch. She is here at RSA, promoting some of the new technology her company has developed, so it should prove to be an interesting meeting.
After that meeting, I'll sit down and talk to Fortinet, the winners of yesterday's Deep Throat Fight Club. After that, meetings with Atmel Corp, UPEK, and BitDefender will round out the afternoon.
RichApr 10th, 2008 - 22:30:38
Hey Steve,
Great reporting, very enjoyable and highly informative!
Chance to put the feet up for a well deserved break?
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