AWS reInforce 2019 – Expectations from a Cybersecurity Conference Veteran

by Jack Danahy on June 24, 2019

For those of us who have attended RSA for decades, the evolving chaos of that event has led to a surplus of noise and a real difficulty in identifying trends, topics, or technologies of value. Personally, I’m energized by what looks like a very different show—the inaugural AWS re:Inforce event that starts in Boston tomorrow—and the potential for a security event that combines real customers and actual advancements and implementations of security in the wildly growing AWS universe.

Working Together for Better AWS Security

For my part, I’ve had the opportunity to talk about Alert Logic and AWS working together at RSA and at a variety of panels around the country, and I know that the popularity of the platform and the clarity of the shared responsibility model auger well for steep improvements in AWS security, so long as organizations are paying attention.

For me, I’m looking forward to the discussions of the new approaches necessary to secure the customer side of workloads, serverless infrastructures, and the ability to do some pretty interesting data analytics with the pervasive view that AWS can provide. I’ll be doing a couple of sessions with one of Alert Logic’s most vocal customers on AWS, Zach Vinduska from ClubCorp. He found a winning formula for his organization as it grew quickly and needed cost-effective scalability, reliability, and security. Between AWS and Alert Logic, Zach got what he was looking for, and he has some helpful advice for others moving along that same path.

My hopes are for a content-rich show, with little of the pew-pew maps and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) displays of other events. I expect to hear about granular protections for Lambda functions, about further visualizations and information sources around GuardDuty and CloudTrail, and I hope to find a security community evolving specifically to understand and integrate AWS security into the rocky landscape of security in general.

Join Alert Logic at AWS re:Inforce 2019

Alert Logic is a sponsor of AWS re:Inforce and we will be there in Boston this week. Visit Alert Logic at Booth #531 to learn more about accelerated threat detection with Alert Logic and how SIEMless Threat Management can help you address the challenges of AWS security effectively.

Sponsorships Available

I also invite you to come hear from Zach Vinduska, Vice President, IT Infrastructure, Security & Compliance at ClubCorp–a customer of both AWS and Alert Logic–about how ClubCorp has achieved positive security outcomes by combining human expertise and the latest in AWS security. I will be sitting down with Zach for the “Accelerated Threat Detection: Alert Logic & AWS” customer sessions in the Partner Theater on Tuesday, June 25 at 1:30pm or Wednesday, June 26 at 1:15pm.

I hope to see you there.

About the Author

Jack Danahy

As SVP, Security, Jack Danahy engages with customers and the industry on company product strategy. Danahy is an innovative security technology leader with proven success creating, delivering, and promoting new security technologies and practices to address critical needs. He has founded and co-founded three successful security companies, holding CEO and CTO roles. Most recently, he was CTO at Barkly and previously at Qiave Technologies (acquired by WatchGuard Technologies in 2000) and Ounce Labs (acquired by IBM in 2009). He is a frequent writer and speaker on security and security issues and has received multiple patents in a variety of security technologies. Prior to founding Barkly, Danahy was the Director of Advanced Security for IBM, and led the delivery of security services for IBM in North America.