RSA: Well and truly mainstream

The security industry converges at the annual RSA Conference this week, an event that's moved far beyond its origins as a get-together for cryptogeeks and other insiders.

Though still organised by RSA Security, a company with its roots in cryptography, the conference has developed into a showcase for security companies and an annual gathering for IT professionals. This year is the fifteenth anniversary of the event.

"There has been significant growth," said Ray Wagner, an analyst with Gartner. "The RSA Conference four, five years ago was much more of a technician conference."

The changing face of the conference mirrors a growth in concern over security in companies large and small. Once just an extra task for an IT manager, a digital breach may now bring legal entanglements for organisations. That's one reason why concern over security has moved into boardrooms.

Driving that increasing concern is a rise in threats such as armies of zombie PCs, higher awareness of data security dangers, and a need to comply with data protection laws.

With security now printed in bold on many corporate agendas, a plethora of new companies have sprouted up to sell products. At RSA, more than 275 exhibitors will show their wares. Product announcements at the show run the gamut and include application security software, email security appliances, antivirus software and encryption technology.

Charles Kolodgy, an analyst at IDC, said: "The security market is as active as I have seen it in a long time. There seems to be something for everyone."

Many of the new vendors who jumped into the market are looking to cash out, often by being acquired by a larger player. Analysts have said that some of the security start-ups deal in features, not products, and essentially exist to be taken over.

And while new players continue to enter the space, takeovers are common. Symantec, in particular, has gobbled up many small security companies. Executives at the security firm said last autumn that they plan to make six to eight acquisitions per year, with a major deal — such as Symantec's buy of Veritas Software — about every 18 months.

Over the past years, Microsoft has also been acquisitive in the security space, as it ramps up to deliver antivirus and anti-spyware products. The software giant is set to take on traditional security players later this year with the launch of those lines.

Bill Gates will kick off the confab in San Jose, California, on Tuesday, the third time the Microsoft chairman will have opened the event. Other luminaries occupying the keynote stage will include Sun's Scott McNealy, Cisco's John Chambers and Symantec's John Thompson.

Gates is expected to talk broadly about security in his speech, titled "Security in Tomorrow's World". The talk won't be as product-focused as in previous years, but Gates is expected to talk up security in Windows Vista and discuss Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware product, a second beta version of which is due out soon.

Last year, Gates unveiled Internet Explorer 7 at the conference and said Microsoft would deliver anti-spyware technology for consumers at no cost.

RSA itself also plans to make an announcement, which the company will describe only as a strategic shift. Company chief executive Art Coviello is slated to speak Tuesday, after Gates.

Bring on the gear
Many companies in the security space are using the event to announce new products or updates to existing wares.

Symantec plans to introduce a new network access control appliance. Such products perform a health check on computers that join a network to make sure they meet company policy on such things as up-to-date patches, security software and installed applications. The new appliance comes preconfigured, Symantec said.

In a similar vein, Endforce plans to release access control software called Informant, a companion product to Endforce Enterprise. The...

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