5 Things I'm Excited for at RSA
The first big cybersecurity event of the year has finally arrived! Our Idaptive team is here in San Francisco for RSA, ready to introduce everyone to our Next-Gen Access Cloud. (Make booth S235 your first stop and say #HelloIdaptive, see everything we have in store here.) Like you, I am eager to dig into the latest and greatest in cybersecurity tech and strategies. So here are the five things I’m most excited for at RSA 2019.
See firsthand how much the cybersecurity space has grown.
This year, the cybersecurity market is set to exceed a whopping $125 billion. Highly publicized data breaches like “Collection #1” and vulnerabilities from tech giants like Google and Facebook have thrust cybersecurity from an “afterthought” to a “business-critical mission” for executives. They understand that one security mishap is all it takes to cause irreparable damage to corporate and professional reputations, and of course, customer perceptions.
Alongside this growing desire for better cybersecurity systems and practices is an increasing number of vendors (700+ at RSA 2019). With so many products out there now, it’s no wonder that IT security executives can experience a severe case of vendor “fatigue.” Rather than continuing to add more and more tools to the security stack, IT pros are looking to rethink their approach to cybersecurity and set their sights on more comprehensive tools that emphasize simplicity and the user experience. That’s why I am excited to…
Talk more about zero trust.
With recognition from the likes of Forrester and Gartner’s “Hype Cycle,” zero trust has steadily gained momentum in the security scene as of late. Zero trust maintains a key concept at its core: computer networks, in and of themselves, are inherently untrustworthy. This means you can’t realistically separate the “good guys” from the “bad guys.”
Think about it — whether the bad guys have already infiltrated your network, insiders are behaving improperly, or your sales guy is just using his own device from Starbucks to access Salesforce without ever touching your network — the idea of a security “barrier” simply doesn’t work anymore.
Although the concept of zero trust has been around for a decade (first introduced by Forrester) the applications are a necessity now that the majority of new investments take place in the mobile and cloud arena. This leads into the new wave of cybersecurity, featuring…
The application of artificial intelligence and machine learning for cybersecurity.
Let’s face it, it’d be hard to get a spot at RSA this year if you aren’t talking about how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning improves cybersecurity. While it’s still early days (and hype around AI and ML has been bubbling for years now), these technologies mark the future of security, adding new layers of sophistication while reducing the burden on IT and improving end-user experiences.
Right now though, this is still such an “insider baseball” approach to discussing the impact of AI and ML on security. Instead, I’m most interested in meeting real-world business executives to…
Discuss modern approaches to cybersecurity.
This is the whole point of this event right? I’m looking forward to empowering technology leaders with the knowledge and insights needed to stay one step of ahead of cyber threats.
A modern approach to cybersecurity not only mitigates the primary cause of breaches (compromised credentials) but can also greatly reduce the friction that security often imposes on end-users’ productivity. This framework can provide organizations with the newfound confidence to adopt more innovative business models and bring to market kick-ass customer experiences — all without compromising on security.
For this reason, I couldn’t be more excited to...
Talk with the nearly 50,000 RSA attendees about Idaptive’s Next-Gen Access Cloud.
From the moment it’s deployed, our Next-Gen Access Cloud continuously analyzes and learns from millions of logged factors and data points associated with people, devices, and services to enhance security postures and improve user experiences.
At our booth (#S235), I’ll be guiding folks through hands-on demos showcasing Idaptive’s unique combination of single sign-on (SSO), adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint and mobile context, and behavior analytics. This is the first time these capabilities have been united on a single platform, enabling customers to better verify and validate people, devices, and services.
While RSA can be overwhelming at first to some 50,000 attendees and 700 IT security vendors, I’m excited for what looks to be a wonderful conference. This might just be the turning point on understanding that there’s a better approach to cybersecurity — one that avoids vendor fatigue, reduces IT burden, eliminates user friction, and empowers organizations to confidently accelerate their digital transformation efforts.
Come say hello and meet Leon at our booth (#S235). Or if you can’t make the event, click over to www.idaptive.com and visit us there. See everyone there!
Corey Williams
Corey Williams is the Vice President of Marketing & Strategy and lead evangelist for Idaptive, leading all marketing functions, as well as market development and strategy. Corey served as the Senior Director of Products and Marketing for more than a decade at Centrify where he was the visionary behind, and the first product manager of, the set of products that were ultimately spun out of Centrify to become Idaptive, including leading SaaS services for Single Sign-on (SSO), Adaptive Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), endpoint and mobile context, and User Behavior and Risk Analytics (UBA).
While at Centrify, Corey defined and brought to market seven net-new product offerings directly contributing to the growth of the existing customer base from less than 400 customers to over 5000 customers. He also led efforts with major industry analysts that directly resulted in Centrify being named as a leader in all of the major analyst reports including the Gartner Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities reports for Access Management, Worldwide; Forrester IDaaS Wave; KuppingerCole Cloud MFA Leadership Compass; and Network World Clear Choice Winner for Single Sign-on Solutions.
Corey is a frequent speaker and commentator on IT Security and IT Management. He has authored several publications, including “Zero Trust Security for Dummies”, a leading guide for enterprise managers.
Prior to Centrify, Corey led products and marketing for SpikeSource (acquired by Black Duck Software), Syndera (acquired by Tibco), and Journee Software (acquired by Initiate Systems). Earlier in his career, he managed pre- and post-sales consulting for Active Software (acquired by webMethods).
Corey holds degrees in Mathematics (BS) and Computer Science (BS) from New Mexico State University, as well as an MS in Engineering and an MBA from San Jose State University.
CHAMELEON-LIKE SUPERPOWER
If Corey could have any chameleon-like superpower, it would be the chameleon's tongue, which is ridiculously fast. Some of the world's smallest chameleons have the world's fastest tongues. In automotive terms, the tongue could go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a hundredth of a second! “I would be able to complete webinars in 4.5 seconds instead of 45 minutes!”