Another exciting day at RSAC is in the books! From the Early Stage Expo to RSAC Sandbox, we’ve had many in-depth and thought-provoking discussions about cybersecurity and the state of the industry.

We’re on the eve of the last day of Conference, but the fun isn’t over just yet. Let’s check out what took place today...

Eleven keynotes took place throughout the day today, starting with Words & Actions Matter: Leading as a Change Agent, where attendees heard from Michael Cunningham, Chief Information Security Officer at Graphic Packaging International Betty Elliot, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, at Freddie Mac, and Andy Kirkland, Chief Information Security Officer at Starbucks. The panel offered success and failure stories that have helped facilitate sustained action and offered listeners a toolkit of ideas for influencing individuals, leaders, and other groups within an organization and beyond.

The Five Most Dangerous New Attack Techniques panel featured experts from the SANS Institute. They explored the most dangerous new attack techniques in use today, what's coming next, and what organizations can do to prepare. The theme of this year’s discussion was “new takes on old techniques” and the panelists examined how adversaries are using simple, cheap existing technologies with malevolent applications. The trends discussed included: “living off the cloud” and the growth of cloud-based attacks, the continued need for multifactor authentication, addressing back-up vulnerabilities, satellites and the control of information. The panel answered questions on remote working and threat models and reminded the community to “know their normal” in order to detect attacks. 

Additionally, we continued award-giving today by honoring Alan Paller with the RSAC 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award. Over the years at RSA Conference, Alan led the annual keynote discussion on the most dangerous new attack vectors, and this year before that keynote Ed Skoudis, President of the SANS Technology Institute and Fellow at the SANS Institute, stood up to accept the award on his former colleague’s behalf.

In an afternoon keynote, How a Musician Used Sheet Music Encryption to Help Soviet Defectors,

Dr. Merryl Goldberg, Professor of Music at California State University San Marcos, shared her story of sneaking information into the Soviet Union to help people defect utilizing her own encryption code. This inspiring journey of resilience, transformation, and humanity from 1985 Cold War tension was facilitated by Britta Glade, Senior Director of Content and Curation at RSA Conference.

The Early Stage Expo featured the Early Stage Expo Briefing Center today with some exciting emerging talent showing off their latest innovations. Companies such as Cado Security, Procyon, and TRUEFORT, Inc. demonstrated their innovative products and solutions to eager attendees.

The excitement doesn’t stop here! We have another great day planned for tomorrow.

Thursday: A Preview Snapshot

• Keynotes: We encourage you to check out the full schedule, and keep in mind that Conference keynotes will also be available on the session pages within the full agenda 24 hours after they take place. Here’s a few you won’t want to miss on Thursday:
  • Hacking Exposed: Next-Generation Tactics, Techniques and Procedures – 9:40 AM – 10:30 AM at Moscone South Esplanade. Join George Kurtz, Co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, and Michael Sentonas, Chief Technology offer at CrowdStrike, for a conversation about the upticks in ransomware and supply chain attacks, along with techniques and procedures from today’s adversaries.
  • The Marie Kondo Approach to Security – 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM at Moscone South Esplanade. Bob Lord, Former Chief Security Officer at DNC and Hugh Thompson, Program Committee Chair at RSA Conference, will host a fast-paced fireside chat to hear wide-ranging discussion from memory safety issues and vulnerabilities to MFA and security controls to decision making and leadership.
  • CMMC Ch-Ch-Changes: Turn and Face the Revised Cybersecurity Maturity Model – 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM at Moscone South Esplanade. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program has changed. CMMC Accreditation Body CEO Matthew Travis, Department of Defense Principal Deputy CIO Dr. Kelly Fletcher and representatives from the Defense Industrial Base will discuss the new changes to the CMMC model, the rationale behind the policy and technical changes, and a preview of how these adjustments will be implemented and affect the evolution of the conformance regime.
  • The Hugh Thompson Show - 3:15 PM – 4:00 PM at Moscone West Street Level – Closing out Conference, Hugh will be joined by Katie Couric, Chris Krebs, and racial injustice activist Rasha Robinson to discuss the role that government, the private sector, and each of us play in creating information disorder.
• Sessions: Don’t forget to check out one of the 80+ sessions happening tomorrow – they are not to be missed!
  • It’s Getting Real & Hitting the Fan! Real World Cloud Attacks – 9:40 AM – 10:30 AM at Moscone West 2005. Join Ofer Maor, CTO at Mitiga, for a deep dive into the depth of cloud native attacks and explore a new era of threats.
  • Can you Hear Me Now? Security Implications of Voice as the New Keyboard – 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM at Moscone West 2001. Dr. Rebecca Kleinberger, Voice Researcher and Innovation Manager at MIT and HARMAN Int joins Lisa Lee, Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft and Jeremy Grant of Venable LLP for a conversation about how growing use of voice as a biometric identifier or as a virtual keyboard and the challenges that come with it.
• RSA College Day – Tomorrow is RSAC College Day! This is a great opportunity for aspiring cybersecurity professionals to connect with experts in the industry. The event will feature a panel conversation, track sessions, a resume writing workshop and a closing keynote from Hugh Thompson featuring Katie Couric and esteemed guests from the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder.

Don’t forget to check out the Expo, open from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM on Thursday!