RSAC

It took a long time for the RSA algorithm to grow from theory to practice – almost 20 years from the time it was invented until it was widely deployed. In this StoryCorps @ RSAC podcast, Jim Bidzos, the founder, CEO and Chairman of Verisign, and former RSA CEO, strolls down memory lane with Burt Kaliski, SVP and CTO of Verisign, and the Founding Scientist of RSA Laboratories. The two discuss the creation of RSA the company and of the RSA Conference, which evolved from a small gathering to a global event that people from the highest levels of industry and government would attend. Along the way, people would contact them telling them they’d found a way to break the RSA algorithm, and would share it for a price. So they created the RSA Factoring Challenge. You can listen to their conversation on the impact of RSA on the connected digital world here.

Even as a child, Chris Young, Senior VP and general manager of Intel Security Group, was interested in building. And it was the combination of problem-solving, innovation and building that drew him to technology. On the other hand, “I so didn’t choose it,” Mischel Kwon, president and CEO of MKA Cyber tells him. A chance encounter in a shopping mall, where she was asked to take a test by a computer school, changed her life. They talk about technology as a great equalizer, and how bringing more diverse groups into the cybersecurity fold comes with challenges as our nation talks more openly about its divisive past and as the industry embraces inclusion across class, race and gender lines. You can hear more of their conversation here.

What did two cybersecurity luminaries study to get into the industry? Turns out, Bruce Schneier, CTO of Resilient Systems and Hugh Thompson, a member of the RSA Conference Program Committee, took very different paths to where they are today. Thompson came from the world of math, and Schneier moved through rolls in startups and government and has wound up at Harvard University, as a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “I find that now, being able to be in such a heady soup of smart people doing things that I never thought would be interesting, and having it affect what I’m doing is absolutely fricking fantastic,” Schneier tells Thompson. “The best compliment I ever get is when someone says you changed the way I think,” he says. You can hear more of their conversation here.

This month's podcast features Dave Martin, Technology and Innovation Leader, IT Risk and Cybersecurity at GE, and John Stewart, Senior VP and Chief Security and Trust Officer, Corporate Security Programs Organizations, Cisco, in conversation about the roads they took to where they are today, leading cybersecurity programs for some of the world's biggest companies.

The biggest impact you can have is working with kids to teach them about cybersecurity and cybersafety, according to Ben Jun, security architect and CEO of HVF Labs, and Theresa Payton, privacy expert and CEO at Fortalice.

Security and perimeter experts Rich Mogull, CEO and analyst at Securosis, and Jim Routh, CSO and leader of the global information security function for AETNA, sat down at RSA Conference 2016 to discuss what it takes to be successful in the information security industry, and what it's like to be on the front lines of the battle against cybercriminals.

“I think there’s a new way for us to think about how we live in a post-perimeter world,” says Niloofar Razi Howe, an ex-venture capitalist and RSA’s Senior VP and Chief Strategy Officer, and Asheem Chandna of Greylock Partners, in a conversation at StoryCorps @ RSAC. The two met in San Francisco at RSA Conference 2016 to talk about the future of technology, artificial intelligence, and the way cybersecurity will have to rethink itself to meet those challenges.

Former executive chairman of RSA, Art Coviello talks with head of the International Association of Privacy Professionals Trevor Hughes about how the rapid evolution of technology requires vigilance when it comes to protecting our data—because without good security, privacy can’t exist.

Friends and colleagues Jay Jacobs and Wade Baker, creator of the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, talk about the ways in which challenging assumptions--by looking at data--can change the way we see the world.

StoryCorps @ RSAC: Preview by RSAC

Joshua Corman & Marie Moe discuss the potentially dire consequences of insecure medical devices at StoryCorps @ RSA Conference 2016.