Highlights from the World's Largest Cybersecurity Conference

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In case you prefer watching instead of reading here is a YouTube link to the video of our RSA Conference 2023 highlight.

RSA CONFERENCE 2023 RECAP IN (5 Minutes Reading Time)

RSA Conference 2023 was a whirlwind of activity, with over 40,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors discussing the latest developments in Cybersecurity. Cloud Security Podcast was a Media partner to the conference so we couldn't resist diving into the trends and innovations shaping the future of Cloud Security & more. In this post, we'll explore the rise of generative AI, cloud security trends, and key takeaways from RSA Conference 2023.

Cloud Security Takes Center Stage

As a cloud security podcast, we were thrilled to see so many vendors were on the show floor with cloud security offerings at RSA Conference 2023.

If you walked through the show floor, like we did (which you see in our YouTube video). A large portion of the 500+ exhibitors were SaaS companies with a cloud security play, and attendees were eager to learn more about protecting their cloud infrastructure, governance and compliance in the cloud, and zero trust. Now when I say cloud security, I am not just talking about the CNAPPs and CSPMs, a large portion were talking about how we protect our cloud infrastructure, then the next popular take was governance and compliance in cloud, security of cloud native compute and Zero trust.

But with so many point solutions targeting specific problems in the cybersecurity landscape, there is a growing need for collaboration and integration among cybersecurity solutions. It can be overwhelming for organizations to navigate the marketplace and identify the best solutions to target the many risks they face.

There were lot of Cloud Security startups in stealth and some opensource and announcing their launch on their company pages closer to the RSA Conference days to start sharing their way of solving the growing Cloud Security challenge that industry continues to face.

"A fantastic first RSA for the ZeusCloud team! We had a blast meeting customers for the first time in person, learning about challenges that cloud security teams are facing, and catching up our closest mentors and advisors." - Varun Jain (ZeusCloud - an open source cloud security product that was in attendance at RSA Conference 2023.)

RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox 2023

At the RSA Innovation Sandbox this year 4/10 companies presenting were either AI-based or had AI-enhanced solutions, with the winner being HiddenLayer for their security for machine learning. Other notable areas of focus included identity, code-to-cloud security, and data security. Congrats to the other finalists too who should be proud for being selected out of such a tough competition. Finalists include (in alphabetical order)- AnChain.AI, Astrix Security, Dazz, Endor Labs, Pangea, Relyance AI, SafeBase, Valence Security & Zama

Generative AI Takes Center Stage (Good AI vs Bad AI)

One of the biggest trends at RSA 2023 was the rise of generative AI. Attendees and vendors alike couldn't stop talking about how this technology could positively (and negatively) impact cybersecurity. While AI is not a new technology in the world of cybersecurity, we're starting to see rapid progress in using AI for front-end interfaces, incident management, and other tasks traditionally performed by humans.

As much as we're excited about the potential of generative AI, there are concerns about how it could be a force multiplier for threat actors. We heard from many attendees who wondered whether all the chatter about AI was distracting us from other important areas of cybersecurity.

The Keynote from CEO of RSA Security centered all about identity and how AI challenges the human identity (I personally have a love and hate relationship with Identity cause thats where my cybersecurity career started). Will we as a human have an identity crisis? We are already seeing this with images produced by Mid-Journey Can you tell if the image is an actual human (it's produced by Mid-journey)?

Identity is the most attacked surface from a technology standpoint and if we can't trust what we see or hear then what is truly our identity. This is a problem as we all currently live in an identity 1st world where our adversaries are attacking our identity infrastructure, the identity folks were called out as the unsung heroes (i did shed a tear as a former identity person). The core purpose of emerging IAM platform will be security just like the core purpose for a smart phone is to access services and internet (not make phone calls). This will be powered by AI because and Identity will be important wait for it - Zero Trust, Identity being its most important pillar

The bad guys are going to use AI to compromise identity more realistic ( and better grammar ;)) phishing attacks, search engine optimization and paid advertising, adversarial AI using ChatGPT-powered social engineering to deflect threat detection and response capabilities.

Fun Fact - Did you know 60 companies and startups announced AI enhancements and capabilities at RSA this year!

Key Takeaways from RSA 2023

Overall, RSA 2023 was a great success, with attendees and vendors coming together to discuss the latest trends and innovations in cybersecurity. Here are some key takeaways from the conference:

• Generative AI is rapidly evolving and has the potential to revolutionize the world of cybersecurity, but we must remain vigilant about its potential downsides.

• Cloud security is a hot topic, and there are many vendors with solutions in this space. However, we need to focus on collaboration and integration to effectively address the complex cybersecurity landscape.

• Identity remains a critical component of cybersecurity, and we must ensure that IAM platforms are secure and powered by AI to keep pace with evolving threats.

Thank you

RSA 2023 was a fantastic opportunity for attendees and vendors to connect, share knowledge, and learn about the latest cybersecurity trends and innovations.

We are grateful for the love that the Cloud Security community showed us - we took a lot of selfies, vlogs, broke bread with some new friends and re-connected with old ones. Cloud Security Podcast was there as a Media Partner for RSA Conference and we looking forward to doing this next year too.

We're excited to see what the future holds for generative AI, cloud security, and the broader world of cybersecurity.

See you on the next Cloud Security Newsletter Edition!

Peace!