Network Security, Security Strategy, Plan, Budget

RSA 2016: RSA’s Yoran calls for going on the offensive against hackers

RSA President Amit Yoran today called for corporations and organizations to unleash their cyberdefenders from their traditional role of protector and instead allow them to hunt down the bad guys.

Yoran made this declaration during his keynote address kicking off RSA Conference 2016, during which he noted that those who hope to protect assets merely through preventative measures will fail.

“Adversaries are beating us because they are more patient and persistent,” Yorat said to a packed house at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. "How do we keep up? We have to leverage our own creative and curious analysts and set them loose to hunt down the bad guys."

The RSA president also bashed government attempts to force the installation of backdoors or other security protocols that would allow law enforcement to access devices. He called the measure foolish saying that any credible criminal enterprise or nation-state actor would simply shy away from using such a compromised device. However, these groups will have no problem using such a vulnerability to our disadvantage.

Yoran's call for action followed an interesting opening that had the two-time Grammy award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix sing what could possibly be the first song ever on cybersecurity.

RSA is expecting 40,000 people to attend the event this week. It will feature 500 vendors and 700 sessions and keynotes.

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