December was a blur for many of us as we were closing out end of year activities, buying last minute presents, traveling to visit family and, of course, standing in line to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And although I could spend many blogs discussing the events of Jedha City or Scarif, I’ll stay on topic and fill you in on what you may have missed during all the holiday hustle and bustle: the release of the 2017 USA Today US Department of Homeland Security Special Edition.*
In addition to a Q&A with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the edition tackles a number of relevant areas for our community that echo a lot of what you will ultimately see and hear when you come to RSA Conference 2017.
In Pursuit of Hackers & Threat Detection:
For those new to RSA Conference, we have an an entire track of sessions dedicated to Hackers and Threats which include discussions about the growing underground economy, advanced threats, APTs, new classes of vulnerabilities, exploitation techniques, reverse engineering and how to combat these problems. Hackers & Threats Advanced is technically advanced and will include live demos and code dissection. Keep your eyes to our site for an updated list of sessions, but here is a small taste of what you can expect at the 2017 show:
- Crowdsourced Security at the Government Level: It Takes a Nation (of Hackers)
- Hacking Exposed: Real-World Tradecraft of Bears, Pandas and Kittens
- The Cyber-Circus: What the Rise of Hacking Everyday Things Means for All of Us
Putting your Cyber Degree to Good Use:
This is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts and why just last month we unveiled RSA Conference AdvancedU, a new series of programs to educate and encourage more people to pursue a career in cybersecurity, and also reinvigorate veterans with decades of experience. Here is a brief overview of some of the activities you’ll see at RSA Conference 2017.
Security Start-ups:
Expect to see more from us in the coming days regarding innovation and start-up news for this year’s event. Leading up to the show, you’ll hear about the top 10 finalists selected for the annual Innovation Sandbox competition, which aims to crown the most innovative start-up at RSAC 2017. We’ll also have some updates for you regarding the RSAC Early Stage Expo, a space dedicated to and designed for young infosec companies. This space is located at the Marriott Marquis adjacent to RSAC Sandbox.
Rather than provide you a full ‘book report’ review of this special edition, we’ll leave it to you to explore its contents and hope you found it as interesting as we did. There will be a lot to learn at RSA Conference 2017, flipping through the pages may help you fine tune what topics you want to learn more about once you arrive in San Francisco.
*Disclosure, USA Today is an official media partner of RSA Conference