Infosec 2008 – Is that it?

I managed to miss the Infosec event in London last year due to HP having their Technology@Work event in Berlin the same week (it was a tough call) so this years event was a chance to catch up on what’s new.

So today saw me heading off to Olympia in West London to see what’s new in the world of information security and I think the answer is “not much”.

One thing I did notice was that there were a lot more stands this year and a lot of lesser known names. I normally take the time to browse the smaller stands as it is here where the innovation tends to be happening.

But not this year. Just how many 2 factor authentication platforms can you have?

Indeed there were 2 clear themes this year and none of them were new. Remote access and data encryption.

The first looks like everybody is trying to copy RSA with their SecurID product to secure remote access into the enterprise and the second is missing the point. After all, the recent high profile data losses that have hit the press are not about the technology being available, it’s about the user not using the tools available. After all, what excuse is there for sending classified data unencrypted on a CD by mail when there is a perfectly good secure government network in place?

Anyway back to Olympia.

McAfee seem to have a large presence with a couple of stands yet Microsoft seemed to have given the whole event a miss. I have now found out that they had a theatre to the side of the building but no stand as such. Odd!

And thinking about it I don’t recall seeing Cisco either which must be seen as some sort of snub yet I was surprised to see a very large Google stand where the presentation being shown as I passed was around email compliance and security.

But on the plus side, the 3M site was giving away their fantastic privacy filters for laptops for free. If you ever work on the train or in a public place you really should look at these as they really work so well.

So maybe Bruce Schneier is right when he says that the standalone security is dying.

Maybe the idea of bolt on devices to protect your network is so 2007. If this is the case then Infosec 2009 could be a washout. We need something new.

The world is changing fast but based on my visit to Olympia today, the information security industry hasn’t noticed.