We’re baaack! What a first day back it has been. We are so happy to see you in San Francisco for RSAC 2023.

Some of the most innovative and intelligent people in the industry have already taken the RSAC stage during today’s opening keynote, track sessions and seminars. With many more to come! Since it is impossible to be in more than one place at once, here’s a quick review of what you might have missed and what you can look forward to tomorrow:

Announcing This Year’s RSAC Innovation Sandbox Contest Winner

Congratulations to HiddenLayer who was named RSAC 2023’s “Most Innovative Startup” at this afternoon’s annual contest. After making their case to our esteemed judges, HiddenLayer took the crown for helping enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their critical products with a comprehensive security platform.

We also wanted to congratulate the 10 finalists as well. This contest continues to get more and more challenging each year, and they are certainly in good company. Since the start of the contest 18 years ago, the top 10 finalists have tallied more than 75 acquisitions and received over $12.5 billion in investments from some of the largest tech companies and entrepreneurs in the world. A full recap and blog post of RSAC 2023 Innovation Sandbox contest can be found here.

Highlights from today:

• Knowing 2022 was a tumultuous year for VCs, we welcomed VC partners to discuss The State of Venture Capital in Cybersecurity, and they shared that despite the hardships and growing threats that companies faced, this year also brought some of the most unique innovation the industry has seen.
• Continuing with tradition, Rohit Ghai, CEO of RSA, joined us on day one with a keynote. This year he spoke on The Looming Identity Crisis regarding AI and how the demand for answers about cybersecurity’s role and capacity to secure identity will evolve, continue to grow. In this session, Rohit discussed the new challenges with this AI identity crisis, and more importantly the solutions to avert it.
• Then, to wrap up the day we heard from Lisa Monaco, the US Deputy Attorney General with the United States Government on Combatting Evolving Cyber Threats: Leading with Disruption, and how cyber threats are not just a risk to businesses, but also a threat to our collective security.
• We also had a special guest appearance from San Francisco Mayor London Breed this evening. This marks the first time that the mayor of San Francisco has visited RSA Conference!
• General Paul Nakasone stopped by the NSA Booth this afternoon. We’re excited to have the Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service with us at RSA Conference this year.

What’s happening tomorrow?

Tuesday is the first full day of our keynote presentations. Keep in mind that keynotes and track sessions will be available on-demand approximately 4 hours after their live occurrence and can be found on the session pages.

A few keynotes and networking opportunities you won’t want to miss tomorrow:

• Security as Part of Responsible AI: At Home or At Odds? - 8:30 – 9:20 AM at Moscone South, Room 201. Executives from Deep Mind, Bias Buccaneers, and NVIDIA huddle for a panel moderated by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar, Data Cowboy at Microsoft and Harvard to discuss the complex connections between responsible AI and traditional security.
• The Cryptographers' Panel - 11:35 – 12:30 PM at Moscone West Street Level - is back this year to debate and discuss pressing issues facing the cybersecurity industry and the growing digital society. What will they teach us this year?
• Face the Music: Cybersecurity and the Music Industry - 1:15 – 2:05 PM at Moscone South, Room 201 - brings us a star-studded panel of experts in music, law enforcement, and academia join us for a discussion around artificial intelligence and cyber-enabled threats to the music industry including Country Music Icon Chris Stapleton, Herb Stapleton, Special Agent in Charge with the FBI, Hany Farid, Professor at UC Berkeley, and Katherine Forrest, Partner with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, for a discussion on malicious actors and how the music industry has grappled with evolving technologies.
• Then, if you didn’t get enough startup inspiration from ISB, RSAC Launch Pad is back from 2:25 – 3:15 PM at the Sandbox! Drop by to watch three finalists pitch their bold ideas Shark Tank®-style to industry veterans for strategy advice and community awareness.
• The Next 50 Years – 4:00 – 4:30 PM at Moscone West Street Level. Lastly, Renowned Theoretical Physicist and Futurist Dr. Michio Kaku will take us on a ride into the future for an outlook on the next 50 years through science.
• Networking wise, tomorrow RSAC Sandbox and RSAC Early-Stage Expo will be hosting the CyBEER Ops networking event where you can taste craft brews, enjoy non-alcoholic beverages and tasty bites while exploring 50 startups, networking, and playing games from 4:30 - 6:15 PM at Moscone South, Room 205.
• In tandem with CyBEER Ops, RSAC is hosting a Women’s Networking Reception to celebrate the contributions and continued development of women in cybersecurity from 4:30-6:30 PM at Moscone South, Room 303.

A reminder that the Expo is open tomorrow 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. We hope that everyone is enjoying RSAC so far – our week is only just beginning!