It has been a few weeks since the 2018 RSA Conference wrapped up, and we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and reflect on this year’s conference.

This year we kicked off the show in style, as we were able to finally show off our new branding, including a complete booth redesign. We also welcomed deception.ai to our space – they’re one of our latest technology partners and a fellow Aussie cybersecurity company. They were demonstrating their deception technology enhanced with our qStream quantum random number generator (QRNG). The week was capped with a visit from Australia’s Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security, Angus Taylor MP.

Other RSA highlights included the many conversations and growing interest in quantum-resilient security applications. Our QRNG (qStream) and strong key management (qCrypt) already contribute to helping organizations build stronger quantum resistance, and our leading position in quantum key distribution (QKD) development will help pave the way for even stronger quantum protection .

Besides the discussions around our products, we noted a few other key themes around the show floor:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: You didn’t have to go far to find a company leveraging AI and machine learning for security application. While the merits of the technology are promising, it’s also wise to remember AI is being used threat actors to aid cyberattacks.
• All Things Blockchain: In business, blockchain is the new black, and cybersecurity is no different. But there was some skepticism and cynicism around the distributed ledger technology. Ron Rivest, an MIT professor and cryptographer, remarked while on a panel of cryptography “all stars” that “Blockchains are often viewed as security pixie dust. If you add them to your application, they magically make it better.” Given blockchain’s reliance on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) crypto, it will be worth monitoring how they tackle upcoming quantum computing attacks to which PKI will be particularly vulnerable.
• GDPR is Coming: The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is just weeks away from enforcement, and there was an abundance of solutions out in force. It will be interesting to watch this topic over the next few months and see when the first big enforcement story will hit the news.
• The Quantum Threat: We had many conversations around this topic and many were interested in learning more about quantum resilience, as well as QKD communications. As a quantum cybersecurity company, we’d like to highlight that while mature QKD and quantum-resistant algorithms are still in development, there is plenty that organizations can start to do to prepare, by implementing true random and robust key management capabilities.

We are now counting down the days until next year’s RSA Conference 2019 (299 days from today, to be exact), which starts March 4. We look forward to the event, we look forward to it, and hope you do too.