At RSAC 2020, we’re focusing on the Human Element of cybersecurity. What better track to do that than the Mobile and IoT track, where technology is what we have in our pockets, built into our homes and embedded in the gadgets that surround our daily lives?

I’ve been involved in the mobile focus at RSAC since the track’s inception many years ago, first as a speaker and now as one of the Program Committee members who helps select the track sessions. I’ve seen the evolution of the track from a very mobile-heavy focus on BlackBerry and iPhones® to the sky-is-falling moments of Android over a decade ago to a more balanced approach to all aspects of technology, which doesn’t necessarily fit a clean enterprise-grade classification. We’ve still got great content from excellent researchers at Google and mobile security product developers, but now we also have perspectives from policy makers at NIST and UL. 

As was covered in the RSAC 2020 Trend Report, the separation between physical and cybersecurity grows ever smaller with the convergence of IT/OT and the use of tools like network-enabled surveillance cameras and other smart sensors as part of a physical security strategy. The cultural gap between physical and cybersecurity continues to be something that we try to bridge in some of our sessions at the next RSAC with speakers from NTT Corporation and the World Bank. 

If we think about mobile and IoT security from a ‘big picture’ perspective, we really need help from the broader market to drive security quality into mobile and IoT products and services. We’re excited to have speakers from Consumer Reports to give us a fresh perspective on how broader market trends and consumer security expectations can move the needle in a positive way. We’ve also got experienced researchers from companies like Rapid 7 who will share frameworks for how cybersecurity tactics can drive long-term Mobile and IoT cybersecurity strategy from the beginning of the product/service lifecycle.