Everything old is new again. This year at RSA 2011 we find that the themes of years gone by are looking on with some disdain as this year appears to be suffering from an identity crisis. Last year for example everyone was flogging that their product/service/widget could help you defeat the wily evil that is Advanced Persistent Threat or more commonly referred to as APT. While this had the ability to induce vomiting for many in the security community it did not stem the tide of marketing materials.
This year, an identity crisis. I have seen several competing themes trying to emerge. The top five this year are Cloud Security (duh), Wikileaks, Stuxnet, Mobile Security and APT. So, who will be the clear winner? That remains to be seen. Cloud Security does appear to be leading the pack.
Now, Bill Brenner from CSO made an excellent observation. In 2005 there was a rash of companies that were flogging their various anti malware solutions. A great number of them were gobbled up and lost to the mists of time. Will we see the same with the various Cloud Security startups? Best guess would be yes. We’ll more than likely see a repeat of years gone by in this cycle of life.
So, what’s your vote for this years theme? No, Alice & Bob isn’t the correct answer.
(Image used under CC from paurian)
I like how three of the five themes aren’t even areas they are just incident/events that point at the trend.
The official theme is cloud. The fact that Stuxnet and Julian keeps showing up are reflections on important news in the year gone by. Not exactly strange.