RSA 2013 -- First Impressions

If it's late February, then I must be in San Francisco for the RSA Conference :)

I always go to the welcome reception on the Monday night.  Not because I'm a heavy partyer, but because it's on the vendor floor.  You can usually get a decent feel for the leanings of the industry (versus the profession) if you walk the floor. This year the product industry has completely jumped on the bandwagon of "Security Intelligence."  Sure, the standard vendors and tools are still on display...but their pitch now revolves around their ability for us to "paint a clearer picture" of what's going on in our environments.  The focus clearly is on the value/need for security professionals to gain more insight into their networks and extract intelligence from the plethora of data.  And, of course, every vendor has the tool to help me succeed in this effort. 

You can also get a sense of the economic temperature of the industry by walking the floor.  I remember my first RSA in the early 2000's;  there were vendors giving away cars on the vendor floor.  Flash forward to 2010, and you were lucky to get more than a pen or a notebook in the booths.  While cars haven't returned, you are seeing more raffles for Kindles, iPads, MacBooks and the like.

One interesting point that struck me this year was the seemingly overabundance of Vegas-style "booth babes" at this years conference.  While it is not unusual to see attractive men and women from the corporate sales teams manning the vendor displays, it seemed as if every 5th booth was manned by either a woman in a form-fitting cocktail dress or a woman wearing the company logo whose job was to scan your badge only (i.e., if you asked her about the product, she quickly referred you to someone else on the team).  Frankly, I've always felt that this tactic had no place at a serious security conference...but its increased use seems to indicate that I am in the minority.

Should be an interesting week...will keep you posted!