We’re less than a month out from the RSA Conference (RSAC), generally considered the world’s leading cybersecurity event bringing together security executives and professionals from all over the world. With a packed agenda featuring keynote speakers, seminars, and networking events, the conference offers a valuable opportunity to learn about the latest security trends and best practices.
However, that packed agenda can be as overwhelming as the conference itself. If you’re getting a headache sorting through the agenda, here are some key topics that we see dominating the conference.
Top RSAC 2024 Session Themes
As we gear up for the conference, here are the cybersecurity topics we’re seeing pop up over and over.
AI and Security
You can’t open a web browser these days without seeing artificial intelligence (AI) references. So, it should be no surprise that AI is a major focus area at RSAC 2024.
The conference has over 100 sessions that reference or focus specifically on AI, generative AI, machine learning, large language models, copilots, and more. That’s more than 25% of the total agenda for conference!
Why is AI taking up more than 25% of the total agenda for RSAC? One likely reason is that AI can be both a defensive approach and a threat. Many organizations are turning to AI and machine learning to strengthen their defenses against cyber threats, while at the same time, hackers are also using AI to launch more sophisticated attacks. And, because AI is still a bit of a novelty, researchers and practitioners are eager to demonstrate what they’ve been able to do with AI and cybersecurity.
Some of the key sessions we’re anticipating are:
- Navigating the AI Frontier: The Role of the CISO in AI Governance. For the CISOs at the show, diving into where AI, cybersecurity, governance, and risk intersect is no small thing. This session aims to provide some clarity with an AI Governance Framework and roadmap that CISOs can use to better understand their role and AI’s impact over their cyber responsibilities. Find out more.
- How AI Is Changing the Malware Landscape and/or Beyond the Hype: Research on How Cybercriminals Are Really Using GenAI. You’ve likely seen the headlines and the stories: AI is enabling malicious attackers and cybercriminals to be more successful by helping those attackers create new security-busting tools, like malware and deepfakes, that are hard to detect. But is this actually true? In these two sessions, threat researchers examine this premise in detail. In the malware session, a deep dive into a VirusTotal AI experiment helps answer how much AI is changing malware today. In the cybercriminals session, researchers source up dark web findings, including AI malicious services for sale, to give you a sense of where AI has actually been implemented.
- AI in Cyber: Is the Cyber Profession Ready for Its Impact? Underlying all the talk about AI dramatically changing cybersecurity is the thread about how this will affect the cyber workforce. Are cyber professionals going to be replaced by robots? Find out what the CEO of ISC2, the leading association for cybersecurity professionals, thinks in this session on Tuesday, May 7 at 1:15 PM PT.
Governance, Risk, & Compliance
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) is another major theme at RSAC 2024 this year. With more than 75 sessions tied to this topic, it’s clear that RSAC is more than just about new technologies impacting cybersecurity, but also that conference organizers know that processes are critical to ensuring strong security.
In an era where cyber threats are evolving with unprecedented speed and complexity, GRC can help organizations comply with the necessary regulations to protect their assets and reputation. These topics take center stage as they are the foundation upon which businesses build their risk management strategies, ensuring that they are not just reactive, but proactive in their approach to cybersecurity. By focusing so heavily on GRC, RSAC can aim to address a holistic picture of cybersecurity, underlining the importance of a strategic, standardized, and systematic approach to managing and mitigating risks in the digital age.
Some of the key GRC sessions we’re anticipating are:
- Building Your Roadmap to Cyber Resilience – Five Things You Can Do Today. To be fair, this one’s a toss up for us: it could be great, or it could fall flat. But we’re putting on our list and being optimistic. For cybersecurity leaders, the session’s focus on maturity models, developing a road map, and demonstrating progress could be useful takeaways to support and inform your next executive discussion.
- CISOs Under Indictment: Case Studies, Lessons Learned, and What’s Next. Who better to learn from then the people who’ve been there, made the mistakes, and climbed out of the hole? This session includes a panel of folks who’ve had front-row seats to SEC indictments. Find out what they learned and how you can avoid those same mistakes.
- The Art of Cyber Insurance: What’s New in Coverage and Claims. Just like it’s impossible to avoid AI and security these days, cyber insurance is not going anywhere. In fact, it’s only gaining momentum. Security leaders today cannot escape cyber insurance, but they also need to know how to ensure their organizations have the right policy. Hear straight from insurance experts about what you’ll need to get cyber insurance and the trends that will impact your coverage.
Other major RSAC security themes include cloud security, DevSecOps, and cyber threat intel — none of which are surprising given the increase in digital transformation efforts and expanding attack surface.
Join Us at RSAC 2024
If you’re on the fence about attending RSAC, we hope this blog post gave you a glimpse about what you’ll be able to learn at the conference. Syxsense can help you get there with a discounted full conference pass. Register here and use this discount code to get $150 off: 52FCDSYXSEN.
For those who are going to RSAC, don’t miss a chance to hang out with the Syxsense team. Find out where we’ll be here.
