The RSA Conference 2012 officially starts February 27th, 2012. For me, Monday starts with the CSA Summit and booth duty. This is one of my favorite conferences. It is important to understand that the RSA Conference is not like EMC World or VMworld. This is a security conference… and one, if not the largest security conference. This is not a conference about RSA. For example, Symantec’s President and CEO is scheduled to appear Tuesday as part of the Keynote schedule. What a great concept… a conference not just about a company BUT about companies… no a conference about PEOPLE that are together for a common purpose. People that understand that a world without security is a world without air and water. Security changes everything, not being able to protect oneself from those that want to get us is a risky situation. Users and organizations have a right to understand what options are out there and what is needed to protect their organizations and the ability to see them all at once is a great opportunity. I am excited to see what is out there and even more excited to talk to the customers at the booth. I promise to get back with a recap. What will I be talking about? What I love to talk about everyday. I will be talking about security and virtualization at the RSA booth (make sure you stop by and say hi) and I can not wait to hear the battles that customers are experiencing directly from the customer. To be able to understand what challenges they are experiencing is so exciting to me.
The theme for this year is “The Great Cipher, Mightier than the Sword”. I love this theme. The RSA Conference Events group always have great themes but I really love this one because it is based on the beginning. Where did the idea come from? The theme originates in 17th Century France. A religious war was occurring between the Roman Catholic French and the French Protestants. The Roman Catholics were ruling and battling the Protestants in a small town. The Catholics intercepted an encrypted letter from the Protestants. The letter could not be broken until a mathematician Antoine Rossignol deciphered it. The French Protestants were lacking supplies and ammunition and soon surrendered. Rossignol and his son Bonaventure were noticed for the work by Louis XIII’s chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu who determined secure ciphers and codes to be of incredible value.
