RSA 2009: Art says Kumbaya

After getting out of the first two keynote speeches here at RSA, I have a few quick observations. First, I'm glad no one is alllowed to smoke in the keynote hall. RSA's Art Coviello and Symantec's Enrique Salem were so wooden reading off the teleprompters during their keynotes, even the slightest spark would have set them and the entire building ablaze. And neither of them announced anything of substance. Nothing really on new products, just some horse crap about the need to operationalize things and build an eco-system.

It seems the theme of Big Security at this year's RSA show is Kumbaya.

That's the message from Art and Enrique today. To combat the threat of the bad guys and "win," the industry needs to collaborate and organize. Personally I think this is a veiled response to the success of McAfee's SIA program. Neither announced a formal partnering program, but it's just a matter of time. If you can't beat them, copy them. That's the way of Big Security.

Here's the thing about "collaboration." End users don't care about whether the vendors work together. They just want their problem to be solved. They are frustrated that they aren't any more secure today (and probably less secure) than they were 6 years ago. And with the economic collapse, customers don't have the ability anymore to throw money at the problem and deploy technologies that have limited success and go thru the motions to put another widget in place. That game is over.

So all this stuff about collaboration is noise. It's to distract everyone that Big Security isn't getting it done. They aren't solving the problem. Basically the answer is what I've been saying for a long time (yes, before I went out and got a day job). You aren't going to get ahead of the threat. You need to react faster and contain the damage when you get hit (and you will).

I'm not saying we need to give up. Or stop trying to do the right thing. I'm saying we need to be realistic. Implementing a policy management environment to encompass the entire technology stack, as Art suggests, isn't realistic. Sorry to burst Art's bubble, but customer's don't have enough breadth or visibility to even dream about protecting the entire ball of wax.

It's good keynote fodder, but for the most part it's just more hot air.

PS: I posted a piece on the eIQ blog this AM about whether we should even both to try to "win" the battle against the bad guys: http://blog.eiqnetworks.com/2009/04/21/can-we-win/