RSA 2009 and my Dual Personalities

I promise this is the last post (for a while) before I get back to my regularly scheduled technical content. For a security blogger a retrospective RSA post is almost a requirement so you have to excuse me while I do my duty :)

The theme of the show this year was Collabration (as opposed to the Consolidation theme of years past). This theme couldn't have been more fitting for me as I have begun a new chapter of my own personal collaboration and so has my employer. My experience was much different this time around. Last year I went as a delegate, I audited sessions and crept back to the hotel to ponder what I had learned. This year couldn't have been more different, and mainly because I was fulfilling two new roles. There was Vendor Me (i.e. Booth Babe) and Blogger Me. I audited a record low number of sessions because Vendor Me was busier than I could have imagined. I also had little time to absorb anything because Blogger Me was constantly on the go when I was not at the booth.

First I'll expand on Vendor Me, which I try to keep to a minimum in these writings. My employing company, Third Brigade had some big announcements this week. First off we were announced as part of QualysGuard PCI Connect. Our logo was displayed proudly on the Qualys booth and we are happy to be working with them to fufill PCI-DSS needs. Secondly we were featured in Trend Micro's exciting new launch of OfficeScan 10 among other offerings. I had the immense pleasure of meeting Eva Chen the CEO of Trend Micro at the launch party. We also announced our first Virtual Appliance using the VMsafe-NET API to do IDS/IPS and packet filtration at the Hypervisor level. This is a project I have been heavily involved with and it was great to be able to show it off at a time when VMware just launched vSphere 4. The interest in this new way to deploy security was overwhelming. Finally to top of an excellent week, eWeek named us one of the 10 most interesting products at RSA, which is an extreme honor given the number and quality of vendors on the show floor.

So that's enough about Vendor Me, Blogger Me was delighted to be taken under the wing of none other than Ben Tomhave from The Falcon's View, whom I have been following for a long time. On the very first pre-night Ben, Erin (Security Barbie) & I hung out at the W and I met Dan Kaminsky (of DNSSEC fame). On Wednesday night I attended the Security Bloggers meetup (Photos) and awards show. I met so many of the bloggers, writers and podcasters I have been reading and listening to for years. I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew Hay, Alan Murphy, Christofer Hoff, Martin McKeay, Ira Winkler, Jack Daniel, Jennifer Jabbusch, Jennifer Leggio and so many more I can't even count. After a late night of many parties Ben and I had met so many movers and shakers in Information Security. The universal constant is that these people are extremely intelligent individuals with a passion for security they can't help but share.

The sessions I was able to attend were, for the most part top notch. I particularly enjoyed watching Simon Crosby of Citrix and Stephen Herrod of VMware debate the merits of security API's embedded in the Hypervisor (in which I had my first taste of live twittering). Anton Chuvakin and the panel on logging standards were also very informative. I heard a lot of negativity about the attendance and quality of the keynotes, but for me and many others the positive aspects far outweighed the negatives. RSA is a dycodimey, there are good aspects and bad but it's also what you make of it. Some are there to network, some to audit sessions, others to learn more about the vendors. Its true value is compressing all of these minds and companies down to a couple of blocks in San Francisco for a week, transforming normally geographically challenged communications into a mecca of exponentially accelerated learning, networking, and partnering. For me it was a life changing week that I won't soon forget. 

At four o'clock on Thursday the expo hall closed. An annoying voice boomed over the intercom that the show was over and it was time to pack up and go home. A cheer arose from the exhibitors that were the remaining hall occupants. At first I thought this was simple relief for those that had been on their feet for the past four days, but then I realized it wasn't just that. We had all been there and accomplished much. We were applauding each other for a job well done. We had all played a part in bringing the security world to this patch of ground, therefore personifying the very Collaboration the keynote had encouraged.

Comments

[Anton Chuvakin]

OMFG, I sooooooooooooooooooo can relate to having more than 1 identity (Vendor Me , Blogger Me, etc)

They do fight at time... ya know :-)