2023 RSA Conference is full of opportunities to connect and share

I always look forward to RSA, but this year is special because the theme is ‘Stronger Together,’ which perfectly sums up my philosophy of cybersecurity. The security industry was built on the principle of keeping secrets, which we know is still a sound principle when it comes to our identities, sensitive personal information, intellectual property, etc.  Passwords, Social Security Numbers, banking information, etc., should not be shared. But at the macro level, security vendors and organizations must share the threat information we are detecting in our systems.

Last month I talked about the importance of signal sharing, and why it is the only way we can stop organized cybercrime gangs. In this context, ‘signal sharing’ means that security vendors and other organizations share their threat intelligence so that all consumers have the most up-to-date threat information. It’s like Barracuda Energize Updates on steroids. In the absence of this type of collaboration, we are all at a disadvantage because the criminals have been learning to share. Nation-state criminals and ideological hacktivists are directed or otherwise willing to share knowledge and resources. Beyond these special-purpose threat actors, other gangs have been known to recruit members of rival gangs, and individual threat actors often sell their information to multiple criminal syndicates. The cybersecurity industry must accelerate our willingness and ability to share information.

Of course, we need to do more than just share information. We need to adopt a common language that consumers can understand. The Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF) is a standard that defines how security data is represented and shared among various disparate systems. Systems that support OCSF can understand each other, which means we can all benefit from signal sharing even if we’re using different vendors. Barracuda was an early adopter of this through our integration with Amazon Security Lake. To date, Barracuda Email Protection is the only email security solution available with Amazon Security Lake.

At its core, RSA has always been about sharing knowledge. Like any technology conference, people come together to teach, learn, and connect with others. Agendas are packed with workshops and presentations, and people engage in organic conversations throughout the venue. It’s an exciting atmosphere and a nice break for people who are usually working in an office or ‘back room’ day after day.    

RSA starts Monday April 24 and runs through most of the week. On Thursday I’ll be meeting with the media to discuss Barracuda’s latest innovations and ideas. I’ll also be joining Techstrong TV to share our progress on our eXtended Detection & Rexponse (XDR) and Security Operations Center (SOC) solutions. I talked about this last year with Mitch Ashley and I can’t wait to give an update on everything we’ve accomplished since then. I’m also looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones, so please say hi if you see me!

Fleming and Mitch at 2022 USA RSA Conference | Source: Techstrong TV

XDR and SOC-as-a-Service Expert Merium Khalid

Our Sr. SOC Manager of Offensive Security, Merium Khalid will be joining Elastic Security Product VP Mike Nichols (Elastic.io) at RSA to discuss XDR and the modernization of security operations.  They will be presenting on Wednesday, and I’m sure Merium would be happy to meet you and answer questions.

Merium leads the Barracuda SOC team that handles all offensive operations. Offensive security is sometimes referred to as ‘red team.’ In simple terms, it is a proactive approach to defending your company.  Merium’s day-to-day work involves much more than I can summarize for you. Here’s her Barracuda biography:

Merium Khalid is the Sr. SOC Manager of Offensive Security at Barracuda, where she and her team are responsible for handling all offensive operations. This includes building best-in-class use case detections through machine learning and Artificial intelligence; conducting static queries to detect anomalous or suspicious behavior; researching and implementing new platforms; workflow automation; and providing best-in-class experience for Barracuda partners and their customers.

In her role at Barracuda, Merium brings extensive experience in analyzing data, identifying threats, incident response, research and development, platform migrations, and more. She is also a skilled researcher and has authored many whitepapers. She is also a mentor to many individuals on her team and is focused on her team's and partners' success. During her career, Merium has spoken at cybersecurity conferences such as elasticON and RSA Conference and presented many webinars showcasing the latest cybersecurity threats.

Merium earned her degree in computer science from SUNY Old Westbury and has many years of experience leading and handling security operations.

Merium and the Barracuda SOC team have streamlined operations and reduced incident response times through the Elastic ecosystem. If you are dealing with security silos or related challenges, you’ll want to be at this presentation.

Things to know before you go

RSA can get hectic, so you’ll probably want to plan your agenda.  The conference has published a video and slide deck to help you know where to go for registration, sessions, keynotes, etc.  You can create an agenda and reserve seats by setting up an account on the RSA Conference website.

I am looking forward to seeing some of the keynote speakers this year. On Monday afternoon, Lisa Monaco and Chris Krebs will speak on how the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is prioritizing threat disruption and victim protection.  This issue is addressed in the 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy, and this should be an interesting follow-up to that publication.

There’s a Thursday keynote on strengthening the cybersecurity workforce. This is a challenge that should be of concern to everyone, not just those of us working in the security industry. We have a critical shortage of security talent that machine learning and automation cannot fully address. I hope to be speaking on some new solutions to this problem at a conference later this year.

With so many interesting keynotes, sessions, and specialized trainings, you are sure to have a full schedule at RSA. Hopefully you will save some time to catch up with Merium and me while you are there!