RSAC 2020 Watchlist: The Human Element

In advance of the RSA Conference, we highlight some of the leading trends and provide a glimpse of what will be on the minds of cyber security professionals in 2020.

When actress, writer and producer Tina Fey took the stage of RSAC 2019, she initially confessed that she saw very little—if any—overlap between her industry and cyber security. As Hugh Thompson, RSA Conference Chair probed, though, it became clear that there is something universal about human behavior that transcends time, generation and industry. Perhaps it was this very conversation that solidified this year’s conference theme, Human Element.

The challenges and successes of human behavior are intertwined within enterprise security discussions of data, threats, risk, privacy, management and teams. A focus across all industry sectors on human impact offers insight on how to better leverage common frameworks, inform decision makers in risk management, mitigate new and emerging threats and build a productive security-centric culture.

See Related: Global CISO Of OSI Group On Hacking Humans

Talks at RSAC2020 will explore the use of software and platforms to exploit humans—intentionally and unintentionally—reflecting on privacy implications as well as potential opportunities to use machine learning in a continued evolution of the man/machine relationship. The broad stroke of the human element brush also looked to take on some “elephants in the room” that can hinder the success of the overall security program.

Some of the more sensitive challenges of human behavior will be tackled, such as the potential downfall of toxic working environments, both to individuals and teams, and the risks to the security program that can stem from cyber security and engineering failing to leave their egos at the door.

See Related: How Awareness, Attention Can Improve Cyber Security

Cyber Security Hub will be in San Francisco and publishing content throughout the week. If you happen to see one of us, please stop and say hello. We would love to meet our readers!

Cyber Security Hub is a marketing partner of RSA Conference 2020

See Related: Assessing Human Capital Risks In InfoSec