RSA 2024 Day 1-2: Hack The Bay, RSAC Winners, and Mental Health

Hack The Bay, RSAC Winners, and Mental Health

Author

Ayman Elsawah
May 08, 2024

Table of Contents

Ok, so my motto for this year and for conferences this year is do more with less. I was pretty good about it Saturday and Sunday, but RSA has kind of thrown me off. So many wonderful people here and it’s been great to catch up with everyone.

As such, I’m combining the whirlwind of Day 1 and 2 in one post.

Keeping up with the programming at RSA can be overwhelming, it’s so packed. So one has to pace themselves between events and hallwaycon on and off premise.

Here’s an overview of Day One and Two from RSA 2024.

What Are Your RSA Goals?

Always looking to learn from others and satiate my curiosity, I ask people what their goals for RSA are? The responses have been interesting, and for some got them to reflect on something they never considered.

Here are some of the responses:

  • Just trying to survive

  • Get some swag for the kids

  • Meet with existing vendors

  • Meet customers haven’t met in real life

  • Hangout with my team

  • Present my talks

  • Get 1-3 new clients

  • See the competition

  • I didn’t know I had OKR for this?

  • See what tech is new

  • Raise awareness about my startup

One person had a personal goal of going camping in the Redwoods considering they were in California. Now that’s a goal!! (and a great way to decompress!)

Consider this. A large segment of those roaming the floors includes startups and consultancies that have a presence in the show.

Hack the Bay By Pacific Hackers

Ok, so I have to say I am always impressed by the events Pacific Hackers is able to put on. I came to this event expecting something a simple networking event, but in fact it was like a mini con in and of itself. Had some amazing great speakers and talks by the venerable Sam Bowne and Phillip Wylie.

See the full agenda here: https://hackthebay.org/agenda

The event was hosted at Github headquarters with plenty of snacks, food, and even a CTF!

Realtime pull request stats from around the world!

Innovation Sandbox

One of the most exciting events of RSA personally is the Innovation Sandbox event. This where the top 10 finalist of the contest are selected and voted on, with one winner coming out of it all. Each contestant gets to present their idea on stage to a panel of judges.

It’s a mix of TED Talks on Security and a Netflix cooking show contest with all the drama.

This year’s Top 10 finalists were:

  1. Aembit

  2. Anitmatter

  3. Bedrock Security

  4. Dropzone AI

  5. Harmonic

  6. Mitiga

  7. P0 Security

  8. Rad Security

  9. Reality Defender

  10. VulnCheck

RSA Panelist Judges:

See the winner’s announcement here:

Mental Health in Cyber

I am super passionate about Mental Health, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, and being present in the moment. So I was super excited to see not just one, but TWO non-profits launch this year around Mental Health and Cybersecurity.

Cybermindz

Earlier in the day I was able to attend a lunch held by Cybermindz, a non-profit dedicated to alleviating and preventing burnout in the security community. They were very well organized and I am impressed by their group of board members and volunteers. I was able to interview the founder and a board member as well (coming soon).

Peter Coroneos (founder of Cybermindz) and Stephanie Lopez (Board Member and Licenesed Therapist)

Mind over Cyber

I also had the pleasure of meeting the founders of Mind Over Cyber as well. Another non-profit tackling the severe issue of mental health and burnout in the cybersecurity community.

Special thanks to those out there looking to tackle this problem:

and so many more!!

Looking to sponsor future posts? Send me an email.

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