The RSA Conference 2011 celebrated its 20th anniversary this year and appears to be stronger than ever. The event kicked off on Valentine’s Day apparently to weed out anyone who was not truly committed to security. The traffic on day one was light as expected, but Tuesday and Wednesday really sparked. The floor traffic on both days was heavy and the activity in the booth was fantastic.
Once again the focus at the show was on mobile and cloud security. Several technology providers were showing their latest in software and hardware-based solutions to improve access and control for both mobile devices and cloud-based security applications.
Intel® made a huge splash at the show and went from near obscurity in 2010’s show to a major player this year. Not only did they have a large booth in the center of the floor, but also participated in partner booths like Symantec. One interesting demo I saw was on their laptop access control. Just like in the old “Mission Impossible” days, when unauthorized access is detected on the machine, a poison pill can be launched to the device and render it completely useless. Intel® also showed how they help protect low-level software against attacks where malware is attempting to take control. Their Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) is a hardware solution that validates the behavior of key components within a server. The system checks the consistency in behaviors and configurations against a “known good” sequence.
Throughout the week, we hosted 9 partner and customer presentations that gave attendees a view of the technology trends in 2011. We ended the event with our famous wine, beer, and cheese which had a line going 20 yards deep.