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Anna Delaney: Welcome to the
ISMG Editors' Panel live at RSA

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Conference 2023 in sunny San
Francisco. I'm Anna Delaney, and

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I'm joined by my colleagues, Tom
Field, Mathew Schwartz and

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Michael Novinson. Gentlemen,
hello, we're back.

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Tom Field: We're here.

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Mathew Schwartz: Great to be
here, live.

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Tom Field: Good to be back.

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Michael Novinson: Good to be
with you, Anna.

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Anna Delaney: Very good. Well,
we are presenting coverage from

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the event on a daily basis. What
are highlights for you today?

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Tom Field: Anna, I'm thrilled.
First of all, we've got probably

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well over 150 interviews booked
in our two studios over the

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course of four days, and it is
the "who's who" of global

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cybersecurity industry.
Personally, I'm excited that

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we're going to start our day
with Alberto Yepez, who is the

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managing director, co-founder of
Forgepoint Capital and he'll be

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in here talking about the state
of the cybersecurity community

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and investments. I know
Michael's got a ton of

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interviews going on with venture
capitalists over the course of

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the week. Eric Goldstein from
CISA will be in here today, and

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we will have Jamil Farshchi, the
CISO of Equifax. Excited to talk

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about his topics and his
leadership in this community. So

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it all starts now.

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Anna Delaney: Yeah, exactly.
Michael, lots of interviews

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planned. So what are you looking
forward to?

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Michael Novinson: Of course, I'm
excited. Today, we have Nikesh

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Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo
Alto Networks coming in. We're

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going to be talking about the
role of artificial intelligence

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in the SOC. Also, we're going to
be speaking to Mary O'Brien, GM

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of IBM Security, about
evolutions and threat detection

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and response and streamlining
that process. Out in the main

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stages, we have Lisa Monaco,
from the U.S. Attorney General's

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Office giving a keynote about
doing near-term disruption to

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cyberthreats and really taking
the offense. So I think there'll

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be a lot of content on the
stages in our studios that I'll

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be watching for.

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Anna Delaney: Michael, earlier
on, we were having a discussion

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about what to look forward to.
There's a lot of interviews

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around generative AI.

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Michael Novinson: Yes,
generative AI. We are five

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months into the ChatGPT
conversation.

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Tom Field: Took three minutes
for ChatGPT.

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Michael Novinson: Certainly from
the venture capital community,

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they're really trying to figure
out how to monetize this. What's

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interesting is this is kind of
phase 2.0 of AI, that if you

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think of AI 1.0 and security was
really about embedding AI into

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technology to speed up that
detection response process,

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companies like CrowdStrike that
really pioneered that. Now

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people are really thinking about
how to secure AI models and

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algorithms itself, what does it
look like to ensure that the

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data in them is accurate that
they can't be tampered with? And

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we're going to see a lot of
startups trying to figure out

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how do we actually go about
doing that? That's definitely on

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top of mind for a lot of the VC
folks who I'm going to be

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speaking with.

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Mathew Schwartz: I want to pick
up on that as well, because one

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of the big themes, while the big
theme this year is Stronger

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Together, I love a good theme.
Okay, great. I can work with

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that, especially as a
journalist, but Rohit Ghai, the

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CEO of RSA, is going to be
speaking with us later this

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week, actually, I'm going to be
interviewing him. And "The

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Looming Identity Crisis" is the
name of his keynote. Obviously,

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identity, I think we can say
it's a slightly abused word over

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the years. It means everything
to so many people. But identity

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in AI is huge. And he's going to
be talking about how we secure

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identity as AI looms, and we
have all of these evolving

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security challenges. Obviously,
just one of the themes, I'm

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really excited to be hearing, as
usual, the latest threat

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intelligence, ransomware types
of activity. So that's big on my

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agenda for this week.

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Anna Delaney: Any sessions in
particular that you're looking

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Mathew Schwartz: While the
cryptographers panel is one of

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forward to covering?

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my favorites, on Tuesday,
because you have world-class

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panel of cryptography experts,
including Adi Shamir, very

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outspoken. They're going to - if
history is any guide, they will

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be holding back in terms of what
they actually think about things

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in the past that's included
blockchain, mass surveillance,

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privacy. This year, I am sure,
we're going to be hearing a

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little bit about ChatGPT. And
I'm really interested to hear

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what they think the use cases
might be. Because they never

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hesitate to disabuse the
industry of having too much love

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for something that isn't yet
proven, you know, the latest

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shiny, flashy object. And I
think we know what that is this

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year. So it'd be great to hear
what they have to think about

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that, but with a bit of nuance,
and with their incredible, rich

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background and history in
cryptography that they all bring

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to that.

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Anna Delaney: Last year, the
Ukraine crisis was a big issue

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and a big topic of discussion.
Certainly in your interviews

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around cyber warfare, maybe less
so this year. Who knows? Maybe

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that continues. I don't know
what you're planning to discuss

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with your interviewees, but can
that come up quite a bit?

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Mathew Schwartz: Definitely.
We're going to be talking about

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cyber operations. So there's a
really interesting degree of

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nuance that's come into this
discussion, because there were a

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number of people before Russia
intensified its invasion of

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Ukraine, February 24, 2022.
Before that happens, a lot of

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people thought we were looking
at all that cyber war, we

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thought there would be reprisals
against the West for the

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audacity to support Ukraine in
Russia's eyes. And what we have

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seen is nothing of the sort.
There is a huge increase in

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wiper malware that went away.
We've seen ongoing cyber

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operations, but not in
coordination, pretty much with

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what's happening militarily from
a kinetic perspective. Missile

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strikes are still the quickest
way to disrupt infrastructure.

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The really great hacking seems
to be reserved, maybe for

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espionage and things that maybe
we don't know about yet, because

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that is very useful from an
intelligence gathering

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perspective for Russia. So I
look forward to getting into

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that.

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Tom Field: Don't discount the
impact of disinformation as

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well, because we certainly have
seen that and continue to, and I

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know, I've done a lot of the
pre-discussions with people

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we're going to talk to, The
impact of Russia and Ukraine is

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a topic of discussion throughout
our four days, and certainly

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critical infrastructure
protection, including the

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government people that we're
bringing in here who want to

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talk about the new national
cybersecurity strategy.

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Mathew Schwartz: I was going to
say, wonderful. It's wonderful

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from an emphasis standpoint that
the war has allowed us. We've

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been talking about critical
infrastructure since 9/11. It's

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allowed us to finally get ... I
think, organizations like CISA,

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up and running, and getting
their perspective on things to

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help strengthen it. And we're
seeing that in Britain as well.

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Michael Novinson: I think from a
critical infrastructure

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perspective, something that's
come up for some of the

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conversations I had is how to
bring that protection to

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resource constrained
organizations, at least in the

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United States. You have a lot of
water districts who are

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districts that are just
municipal run. And it's one

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thing if you're talking about a
state that they have the

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resources and they have the
personnel to secure it. But when

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you're talking about tampering
with water systems or tampering

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with electric grids. If you have
a new municipal run electric

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system, how do you bring
protection to those

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organizations? It's something
that's I'm excited to talk about

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with multiple executives in the
critical infrastructure board

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space.

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Tom Field: And OT will come up
certainly. And as you're

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alluding to, what about the
small to midsize organization

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whether it's an enterprise or an
agency?

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Anna Delaney: One word that
hasn't come out yet -

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ransomware. How do you see the
conversation, perhaps, just by

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looking at the agenda? How has
the conversation changed? And

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certainly by your interviews,
what are people looking forward

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to discussing when it comes to
ransomware?

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Tom Field: I've had some people
actually want to come and talk

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about ransomware and it hasn't
gone away. There's a theme I'm

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hearing about with some
individuals or organizations

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wanting to say we've got
ransomware taken care of when

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really we don't and it hasn't
gone away. So I've had some

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people come to me and say we
want to talk about why this is

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still a top level concern.

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Mathew Schwartz: It hasn't gone
away, and it won't go away. And

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if you have something that's
working today, the criminals are

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going to try to find a way to
make sure it doesn't work

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tomorrow. So we've got that
constant innovation, which is

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always one of the great things
about sitting down with the

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experts here at RSA is what are
you seeing, where do you think

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things are headed? Because a lot
of the people we're talking to

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have got their ear to the
ground, threat intelligence,

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monitoring of cybercrime
underground sort of stuff.

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There's a huge amount of
innovation and creativity

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amongst the criminals. And so
it's useful and important to

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track what's happening.

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Tom Field: It's real! This is
our opportunity to find out

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what's real.

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Anna Delaney: We have been
talking a lot about the

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turbulent economic times
recently and the impact on the

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cybersecurity industry. Are you
expecting to have conversations

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along these lines? Or is there a
more positive tone in the room?

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Michael Novinson: 30,000 foot
view, it's a very interesting

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time, because last year, we were
really heading into the abyss

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and there was a lot of
uncertainty. I think things have

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evened out, certainly for the
public companies that pessimism

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has been baked in. And I think
things are pretty stable in

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terms of stock prices and
personnel - for the publicly

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traded companies. I think
there's still some rationalizing

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going on in the private sector.
We're certainly seeing some

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late-stage jobs growing quite a
lot of folks like Wiz and

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Netskope and will be in our
studios, but some of the other

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late stage startups have had to
look toward layoffs. And they've

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had to bring in new CEOs, maybe
with the eye toward finding an

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exit finding a buyer. And that
if the early stage world that

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there's questions about trying
not necessarily the seat in the

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A rounds, but getting that B and
a C round, that investors are

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trying to think what are the
things look like a couple years

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down for now? How do I make
money on my investment? That's

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been tough. We had a company
that was in the innovation

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sandbox here last year who just
got acquired a few weeks ago at

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a pretty modest price. So I
think trying to figure out how

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to get from that early stage,
that mid stage. Late stage

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startup is tough along with the
late stage startup having to

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think about what is the IPO
market going to open and if an

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IPO is realistic for us, given
our balance sheet. What are all

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our alternatives?

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Anna Delaney: This year reminds
me more of 2018 - my first RSA.

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The last year, I felt there was
a buzz and an energy and lots

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and lots of people. Already this
year I feel there are more

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handshakes, fewer masks, we're
promised maybe 40,000 people

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throughout the course of the
week. So it just reminds you,

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this Stronger Together theme.
What do you think it means for

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the industry? A bit of corny
question.

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Mathew Schwartz: I think it's a
wonderful energy. I think I

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already feel that and I think
there is a level of optimism

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perhaps in terms of where we're
going now. I think last year, it

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was a little shell shocked. And
you really felt that and saw

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that in terms of ... when you
just looked around you. I think

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it felt that way. We all felt
that way. And so I do think

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maybe we're coming out of the
winter. And maybe hopefully it's

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springtime, again for
cybersecurity.

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Michael Novinson: I'll say from
a technology standpoint, that I

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think there is a lot of focus on
partnership and integration that

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if you look at the evolution of
single-vendor SASE, which was

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really 12 months ago, so a lot
of debate about do you purchase

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the piece parts separately, or
do you purchase it together.

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We've seen M&A activity, we've
seen partnerships, really

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driving, getting that SD-WAN and
SSE from a single vendor. We're

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seeing that a lot around XDR,
and building that open up XDR

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network. So I think there's a
lot of focus on trying to get

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more under one roof so that
customers are having to manage

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fewer vendor relationships, both
from a security standpoint, as

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well as from an economic
standpoint.

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Tom Field: For me, it's the
idea, from ISMG perspective, we

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have got the largest team we've
ever had here at RSA, covering

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every one of our business units.
We've got individuals here from

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North America, from the U.K.,
from Europe, from India, from

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Israel, and we've got the
opportunity to speak to more

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people than we ever have before.
And to bring this back to our

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audience. So I think to me
stronger together is a group

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that we brought here from ISMG
and I'm proud to work with you

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all. We got a week ahead of us.

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Anna Delaney: Well said! It's
going to be an excellent week.

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Thank you very much. Thanks for
watching and stay tuned for our

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daily updates. For ISMG, I'm
Anna Delaney.