RSA Conference in early May felt a lot like a pre-pandemic industry party. More than 40,000 people attended, and San Francisco was awash with self-driving cars, cybersecurity product advertisements, venture capital events and cocktail parties galore. Industry CEOs participated as well, delivering keynotes trumpeting cybersecurity platforms and the marvels of generative AI for cybersecurity.
While the industry was busy patting itself on the back, I caught a rather sobering presentation from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken reminded attendees that cybercrime is a trillion-dollar industry, and state-sponsored adversaries are relentlessly attacking U.S. critical infrastructure, compromising leading public and private organizations and essentially seeding the battlefield in case of future hostilities. Reading between the lines, Blinken was saying we might lose the cyberwar if we aren’t resolute and diligent in our efforts.
Blinken’s presentation was a hard slap in the face. I thought to myself, “Secretary Blinken is reminding us that we are here to talk about how we can better protect all our digital assets, not celebrate all the glories of cybersecurity technology…
