3 Things You Should Be Looking For at RSA Conference 2024

Every year, cybersecurity leaders and vendors gather at RSA Conference in San Francisco to explore the latest innovations, trends, and strategies in the industry. RSA Conference 2024 promises to be one of the largest in the event’s history – and a great opportunity to learn about this year’s most important cybersecurity topics.

In this blog post, we'll delve into three key themes that you should pay attention to while you’re networking with security experts and vendors at the conference.

1. How AI fits into your security strategy

There’s a lot of hype around AI right now, especially in the security industry. Long before the introduction of ChatGPT last year, security experts lauded AI as the next revolutionary technology, with benefits for threat detection, incident response, and overall security posture.  

Now, though, we’re seeing significant risks associated with attackers using AI in addition to mounting pressure from board members and business leaders to use AI to speed up security operations and improve cyber resilience.  

Despite the hype, these new stressors around AI shouldn’t lead to thoughtless spending. It's crucial for CISOs and security leaders to pay close attention to the practical implementation of AI technologies. This year’s RSA Conference can be a big help in that decision-making process.

At RSA Conference 2024, expect to see many advancements in AI-powered security solutions that can offer real value, but don’t assume that the only answer to protecting against AI threats is more AI. Consider technologies your organization needs to bolster cyber resilience as the attack surface continues to expand.

Implementing a Zero Trust security architecture can help limit the potential impact of AI-driven attacks by minimizing the attack surface. Look for foundational Zero Trust technologies at RSAC this year like Zero Trust Segmentation. These can help enable your organization to proactively prepare for potential breaches by seeing and reducing risk across your hybrid, multi-cloud environments.

2. Cloud security 

The last few years have seen a fast and widespread adoption of the cloud. It’s transformed the way organizations manage, access, and store data – but it’s also left significant security gaps. In fact, recent research by Vanson Bourne found that 47 percent of breaches in the last two years have originated in the cloud.  

Get an overview of Vanson Bourne's cloud security research in this video:

Organizations are finding that traditional security approaches that were fine in the data center aren't working in the cloud. This is resulting in significant cloud security gaps and blind spots.  

At RSA Conference 2024, cloud security will undoubtedly be a focal point, and it’s likely you’ll hear a lot of information about what’s right and wrong when it comes to cloud security. Make sure you’re keeping these three topics in mind:  

• Keeping security consistent across hybrid, multi-cloud environments: As organizations increasingly embrace hybrid, multi-cloud environments, they’re struggling to manage security across different environments and cloud platforms. Look for solutions like Illumio that easily integrate with multiple cloud platforms and offer a single platform for security across the hybrid multi-cloud.  
• Zero Trust: Traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer sufficient in the cloud era. Zero Trust is now the mainstream security strategy for managing today’s security challenges, including cloud security. Look for solutions that help you build and extend a Zero Trust architecture across your cloud, data center, and endpoint devices.
• Compliance requirements: With many organizations quickly moving to the cloud, keeping up with regulatory compliance across cloud environments can get challenging. Visibility and segmentation are essential to many regulations, two requirements that can be difficult to achieve in the cloud. Look for solutions that help you gain complete visibility into your cloud traffic and segment your cloud environments to secure high-value data and applications stored there.

3. Maximizing security ROI amidst resource constraints

Boards recognize that cyber risk is a fundamental aspect of operational risk. Because of this, they increasingly want to see tangible evidence of security improvements.  

However, IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach report found that data breaches cost organizations $4.45 million on average last year, proving that many security teams are putting technologies in place without having proof that they’re making a positive impact on cyber resilience.

In an era of budget constraints and slowdowns, it’s important for CISOs and security leaders to be able to show real value from their security spending.

RSA Conference 2024 provides a platform to explore strategies for maximizing security ROI and optimizing resource allocation.

Look for solutions that allow you to move from merely addressing threats to showcasing value. Business leadership want to see how security initiatives are contributing to business objectives, and any solution you purchase should make it very easy to quantify its impact.

For example, Illumio’s Ransomware Protection Dashboard provides quantifiable information on the number of protected workloads and a protection coverage score. This not only helps security teams continuously improve, but it also helps business leaders see and understand the real value of security investments.

Meet Illumio at RSAC 2024

Take advantage of the unique opportunity offered by this year’s RSAC to delve into key themes shaping the future of cybersecurity.  

Stop by Booth N-5670 to talk with Illumio experts about securing your critical assets across the hybrid multi-cloud. Get more details on Illumio at RSAC, and register for a free expo hall pass using code 54SILLUMIOXP.