Jeff Jones Security Blog

Yesterday was a busy day, so I get a bit behind with my updates on RSA, but I wanted to post about the Microsoft keynote, in addition to the others I attended.

Format was fireside chat, with Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer sitting and talking with Chris Leach, Chief Information Security Officer at Affiliated Computer Services.  [fwiw, I personally don't love the fireside chat format.  Give me videos, fancying graphics and lots of acrobats on the stage ...]

I knew generally what Craig was going to talk about, but I was very interested to hear Craig's perspective and see how he thought about and talked about the end-to-end Trust topic.  In my opinion, this is one of the key topics that could help guide where Microsoft security efforts will go over the next 5 years, building on the past 5 years, and I am happy to see that leadership (Craig, Scott Charney) are approaching it as a dialog with industry and a recognition that it needs interoperability and industry support.

Two key topics stuck with me at the end of the keynote:

1. How security and privacy are very independent, supporting each other, while also having a tension between them.
2. Any technological efforts supporting End-to-end Trust will need to be very inclusive in order to work in heterogeneous environments.  Past infrastructure efforts (e.g. PKI) have demonstrated that the level of work and investment required means that it is more likely to hit roadblocks if existing business processes are excluded.

After the keynote, with the excellent assistance of Eric Green, I was able to pin down several Microsoft partners and get their thoughts on these two areas.  Listen to the attached mp3 to hear our discussions with these good folks:

Sandy Porter Director, Strategy Avoco Secure
Jeremiah Beckett President SecureVantage Technologies
Patrick McGregor, Ph.D. CEO BitArmor
Jon Callas CTO & CSO PGP Corporation
Conrad G. Bayer Senior Vice President IDA Strategy Avaleris	http://www.avaleris.com
Edward J. Gaudet Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Marketing Liquid Machines

 

I did get a couple of these folks on video as well, so once I get that edited and uploaded, I'll update with links to those.

Additional information that is available on End to End Trust:

• Read Scott Charney’s Full Article about End to End Trust
• Read Microsoft's End to End Trust White Paper
• Join the dialogue. Go to Microsoft's End to End Trust forum, and let your voice be heard.

Best regards from RSA ~ Jeff