RSA Conference 2021 Spotlights the Resilience of the Cybersecurity Industry
Every year since 1991, the RSA Conference has offered tens of thousands of attendees an opportunity to hear from cybersecurity experts, see all the latest vendor offerings and connect with others in the IT sphere. But for the first time in more than a decade, during this year’s conference the Moscone Center in San Francisco will stand empty: no colorful booths, no swag and definitely no shaking hands.
Despite the fact that it will be fully virtual this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conference — much like cybersecurity itself — lives on, relevant not in spite of but because of the times we find ourselves in. SonicWall is a Silver Sponsor of this year’s event, which will take place May 17-20.
The theme of RSA Conference 2021? Resilience.
“2020 tested us — it didn’t break us. We’re an industry built on resilience, a sector that adapts, innovates and evolves. But the next test is coming,” proclaims the conference website. “So let’s celebrate our strengths, share what we’ve learned and expand our community to continue protecting what matters most.”
A special live session, “Discord, Generation Z’s Hacking University,” provides a first-hand look at what one of the next tests might be. On Wednesday, May 19, at 1:30 p.m. PDT (Session ID: HT-W14), SonicWall Senior Strategist Brook Chelmo will highlight how the next generation of hackers is more ambitious and better-equipped than any that preceded them.
“Gen Z hackers are younger, have access to more resources and are more formidable than those who came before them,” Chelmo said. “Social media platforms like Discord and Telegram have become a hotbed for them to leverage as they ramp up efforts to spread highly sophisticated ransomware and malware with little to no chance of being caught.”
Though the easy availability of hacker tools has made malicious hacking easier than ever, Chelmo believes there are still a number of ways those in the cybersecurity industry can convince these young hackers to use their considerable knowledge for the betterment of all.
As these young and promising ethical hackers begin to take their place in the cybersecurity world, they’ll do so alongside powerful AI and machine-learning tools — some of which are already proving themselves worthy defenders, like SonicWall’s patented Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM) technology.
During the first of two virtual briefing sessions, titled “Disrupting the Malware Business: How to Stop Evasive Malware with Memory Analysis,” SonicWall Vice President, Platform Architecture, Dmitriy Arapetov will focus on evasive threats, what makes them pervasive and how we can use RTDMI and other tools to stop them.
“Malware is a lucrative business in which cybercriminals expect a high return for their time and effort in coordinating and launching a successful attack, with a lot of effort being put into evasion of existing security tools,” Ayrapetov said. “Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection is a vital weapon to catch such evasive attacks early in the malware campaign.”
Attendees also will get a closer look at what some of these evasive threats are during the second virtual briefing session, when Chelmo discusses the findings in the recently released 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report. Drawn from SonicWall Capture Labs telemetry data collected from millions of sensors worldwide, these findings show record increases across several threat types, and reveal which areas and which industries were worst hit by threats such as ransomware, IoT malware, cryptojacking and more.
During the conference, ticketholders will also have the opportunity to hear from a number of high-profile keynote speakers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and executives from Johnson & Johnson, Google Cloud and SolarWinds.
And as always, attendees will have the opportunity to connect with SonicWall reps, attend booth briefings, receive digital materials and speak with cybersecurity experts at the Digital Expo, which will be open Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT, and Thursday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT.
With all the changes the past year has brought to the world of cybersecurity, RSA Conference 2021 will definitely be one you don’t want to miss. We look forward to connecting to you during the conference — in the meantime, if you’d like more information or want to schedule a meeting with a SonicWall cybersecurity expert, please visit www.sonicwall.com/events/rsa.
