NetLib Security hits the road for RSA

NetLib Security attended its second RSA Conference last week in San Francisco, where some major themes were big data, analytics, incident management and response, and the like.  Our team took to the show floor at the Moscone Center with gusto and clever shirts that seemed to be a hit with visitors over the four days there.  From our neighbors across the aisle at Defintel, to the Star Trek-themed display at Trend Micro in one of the other halls, the place was vibrant and packed.

In addition to helping man our own booth, which received substantially increased traffic compared to our first attendance last year, I wandered the convention day after day until my feet bled and my legs were two pillars of dried cement.  Fortunately, I was able to encounter some intriguing vendors and meet interesting people.  On the downside, none of them were podiatrists.

Threat detection, analysis and prevention informed, among others, AT&T’s virtual reality game demo.  This was actually my first go in a VR headset, and once I got over the vertigo of looking down in the chopper, cruising along the translucent sky streets of a futuristic Tron-like city while listening to electronica fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine, one that I’m probably a few centuries too early to ever experience for real.  So that was cool.  NRI Secure Technologies, a Japan-based firm, offered their own managed security services accompanied by eye-catching banner art, while Enterprise Digital Rights Management provider Seclore was one of several exhibitors with a Star Wars theme, lightsabers and all.  That wasn’t the only pop culture reference, though, as endpoint protection provider Bromium arrived with a Breaking Bad display, van included.

And for some reason, Sherlock Holmes was meandering around the show floor.  Still haven’t figured that one out.

Anyway, I mentioned some of the overarching themes earlier, and they were certainly omnipresent.  Another’s presence was welcome to see, even if it does mean more competition for us.  While I personally didn’t encounter it much during my limited wanderings, encryption, which should be held in equal importance to any other aspect of data security, had a pretty strong showing.  For it to be trending as it was, for it to be taken as seriously as it should, is encouraging.  After all, perimeter measures are important—firewalls and antivirus—and how an organization manages all its actions from behavioral analysis to incident response determines its direction going forward.

Failing to encrypt sensitive data, however, leaves you absent a last line of defense for when the others are breached.