Two highly anticipated cybersecurity events last week drew us to the Bay Area and the Capital Beltway: The RSA Conference in San Francisco and the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit in National Harbor, Md.
Synack had both coasts covered, and we were delighted to reconnect with so many of our customers, partners and colleagues. We showcased how our unique pentesting experience can find the vulnerabilities that matter, keeping urgent threats at bay while bridging the cybersecurity talent gap.
We also brought the party! From rocking out to a Journey cover band in San Francisco to sipping margaritas while soaking in the lights of National Harbor’s famous Ferris wheel, here are some highlights from the two in-person events:
Journey by the Bay
San Francisco, we missed you!
The last time Synack hosted RSA attendees at Moscone Center neighbor, Fogo de Chão, was in February 2020, the COVID pandemic had yet to upend life in the U.S. “Zero trust” was just beginning to be a buzzword, and many federal agencies were facing deadlines to develop their first-ever vulnerability disclosure policies.
What a journey it’s been. After a two-year hiatus and a COVID-related shuffle from its original dates in February 2022, RSA finally came back to the city by the bay bearing the theme, “Transform.”
We were ready to make our own triumphant return to Fogo de Chão, just 98 steps from the conference in Moscone Center. Our “Journey by the Bay” experience kicked off early on Tuesday, June 7, with a breakfast panel celebrating women in cybersecurity. (Read more about the inspiring event here.)
The discussion highlighted Synack’s Inclusive company value: “Diversity is at the core of what we do at Synack, and it’s made its way into our culture as well,” Synack Chief Marketing Officer Claire Trimble said at the breakfast.
During the day, RSA attendees stopped by to see Synack in action, discovering how we are bridging the talent gap with on-demand security talent from our elite Synack Red Team. We showed off our On-Demand Security Testing Platform, which gives organizations a central view of all pentest assessments and offers easy-to-digest reports and metrics to track progress over time (and meet compliance requirements). And we highlighted Synack’s wide-ranging contributions to the cybersecurity media landscape through the README news site, the weekly Changelog newsletter and the We’re In! podcast.
As RSA let out and the lights went down in the city, we hosted Journey tribute band Forejour, who played hits like Don’t Stop Believin’ and Any Way You Want It. Our guests enjoyed more than a few rounds of caipirinhas – not to mention Fogo de Chão’s legendary barbecued meats.
On Wednesday morning, Synack CTO and co-founder Mark Kuhr led a breakfast discussion on “A Better Way to Pentest,” demonstrating how Synack combines the best of human intelligence and machine intelligence to offer a peerless pentesting experience.
As the conference started to wind down, we gathered for one last happy hour to toast to a successful event. We also streamed Game 3 of the NBA Finals to (mostly) cheer on the Warriors.
Throughout the week, guests had the chance to get to know many of Synack’s sponsors, including Accenture Federal Services, Arkose Labs, AttackIQ, Bolster, Netography, Netskope and SynSaber. We’re grateful for their support and can’t wait to see them at future events!
Embracing change at Gartner
Meanwhile in National Harbor, the Gartner summit returned to an in-person format for the first time since 2019, highlighting the latest actionable research and advice for security leaders.
Wednesday saw Synack CEO and co-founder Jay Kaplan present on “Staying Secure in the Midst of a Talent Crisis.” Kaplan shared how he and Kuhr launched the company to help organizations struggling to find the right talent to fend off constantly evolving cyberthreats.
“We do things differently by leveraging a global crowdsourced network of highly vetted security researchers in over 90 countries to perform on-demand and continuous testing to discover every vulnerability that matters,” Kaplan said.
As trends in digitization and automation drastically expand the attack surface visible to cyber adversaries, security systems and testing must change to keep up, he pointed out.
Organizations facing increasingly sophisticated threats “are being scanned every day—they just don’t get the report,” Kaplan said.
That evening, Synack hosted a Fresh Air Fiesta at Rosa Mexicano, steps from the Gartner show floor at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Over margaritas and massive bowls of guacamole, we met with customers and made many new connections.
Between the two major infosec events, it was an epic week for all of us at Synack. We’d like to thank everyone who joined us or followed along on social media!
