Q&A Series with RSAC Ambassador James Lyne

In part three of this series, meet RSAC Ambassador, James Lyne!

James is Global Research Advisor at Sophos, and a frequent speaker at RSA Conference. We reached out to James to ask him a few questions as a repeat speaker and attendee, so read on for his thoughts on where to network and how he is prepping for his session and keynote.

How many times have you attended RSAC? 

I have attended RSAC 7 times now and am looking forward to my next visit. 

What is the #1 reason you attend RSAC?

I always run in to old friends from the industry, fellow researchers at vendors, and have a ton of interesting discussions. The time around the sessions is often as interesting as in.

Where should attendees go to do the best networking during RSAC? 

For me the best networking is always in the coffee areas where natural discussions form. 

What’s your favorite party to attend the week of RSAC?

I am actually not a massive party-goer. Don’t be wrong, I love to catch up with people during RSAC and enjoy a few drinks, but I find the week too intense to throw myself in to the litany of parties. I can’t get up to get to the next day early for the breakfast meetings, morning keynotes, and sessions otherwise. I must be getting old ☺.

Outside of sessions and the expo, which program is a must-attend for you?

I always like to sync up with the security education team with the CyberSmart Parents Education Seminar. SANS NetWars is also a lot of fun as people get hands-on and solve some challenges.

What is the topic of your session?

I’ll be talking on top threats and predictions for next year with a panel of far more remarkable experts. I’m also doing a session with Steve Sims where we plan to cover some much more technical content and look at some cutting-edge exploit techniques and advancements in mitigations. It will be a nice blend of high-level and very technical sessions.

How are you preparing for your session?

There will be a significant amount of demo practice as most of my sessions involve a huge number of live demonstrations! I’ll also be working on up-to-date examples to make sure it has maximum relevance to those attending. 

What skills/info will those who attend your session walk away with?

For one, I know they will leave with a few ideas about the likely major focuses of cyber-criminals next year and how to prepare.  We also hope in our more technical session to convince a few security people whom are new to exploitation and some of the lower-level concepts involved, to have a go and learn more about these flaws and where they are going. From high-level trends to low-level bits and bytes, I am sure it is a week that will be filled with interesting ideas and discussions!

If you missed our Q&As with our other RSAC Ambassadors, click here to read Mark’s or here to read Chester’s. See you soon in San Francisco!