A Tale of RSA

In this episode, Stewart Baker goes to RSA and interviews the people that everyone at RSA is hoping to sell to—CISOs. In particular, John “Four” Flynn of Uber, Heather Adkins of Google, and Troels Oerting of Barclays Bank. We ask them what trends at RSA give them hope for the future, which make them weep, what’s truly new in cybersecurity, and what kind of help they would like from government. 

While Stewart’s traveling, Alan Cohn takes over the news roundup. We start with some news from the RSA Conference keynotes. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, called for a cyber “Geneva Convention” on behalf of the sovereign nation of Microsoft. And Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, announced his opposition to backdoors in encryption, lining up with former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden, but against current Attorney General Jeff Sessions and current FBI Director Jim Comey.

In news from across the pond, Maury takes us through the EU’s efforts to take on robots.  We coin the term #EURobotHammer in the process (it’s complicated). Maury also tells us whether the Russians are hacking the French elections (it’s complicated).

Back stateside, Alan asks what the cyber implications are of "out like Flynn, in with McMaster" at the National Security Council. Alan also confides in us about White House staffers’ use of confidential messaging apps like Confide (see what I did there?). 

Finally, Alan takes us through a few quick hits on CrowdStrike vs NSS Labs, the SASC’s new Cyber subcommittee, and Yahoo!’s $350M haircut.

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