Cyber Concerns Dominate 2015 AFCEA TechNet Asia Pacific

I recently returned from Hawaii where I attended the AFCEA TechNet Asia Pacific trade show for the fifth time in a row. It’s always a good opportunity to hit a couple of birds with one stone: meet with some customers, develop relationships with new prospects and hear which issues and initiatives are getting the highest attention.

It wasn’t a surprise given the events of the past few years, but I was pleased to hear the deputy commander of the Pacific fleet, Rear Admiral Phillip G. Sawyer say, “If you’re not resilient in communications, you’re not relevant.” Of course, this applies to the traditional communications infrastructure as well as to cyber security.

As another speaker, Maj. Gen. Dave Bryan, USA (Ret.), pointed out, “We’re at war in cyberspace, and this has been a hard lesson to learn.” He added that the threat lies not to network access or to the network itself, but to the data. “It’s the database, stupid,” he said. “Look for the technologies coming out that protect the database.”

Adm. Dick Macke, USN (Ret.), former commander, U.S. Pacific Command, offered deductive reasoning to set a high priority for cyberspace. “Cyber equals C2 [command and control], C2 equals victory. Therefore, victory needs cyber,” he stated. Adm. Macke called for the ability to beat the enemy at its own game. “We’re going to be attacked, and we are going to lose some part of our C2,” he warned. “I’m a warfighter, and I want rules of engagement that allow me to attack [cyber] before I have to defend.”

Needless to say, we had a steady stream of visitors drop by our booth, mostly new prospects, asking how RedSeal could provide solutions to their various problems. Network mapping. Vulnerability identification.  Automating security controls. As one Navy officer said, “If you have to do it more than twice, automate it.”

I agreed. And we scheduled a demo of RedSeal for his team this week.