RSA Conference 2025 : Identity Security and Cybersecurity Fundamentals

San Francisco: The 34th annual RSA Conference (RSAC) 2025 wrapped up on May 1, 2025, at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, drawing cybersecurity professionals from April 28 to May 1. This premier event featured keynotes from notable figures like Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, UK AI Security Institute CTO Jade Leung, and NSC Senior Director for Cyber Alexei Bulazel, alongside a diverse lineup of industry experts.

A core focus of RSAC 2025 was the critical role of identity security. Experts emphasized foundational practices such as using strong, unique passwords (minimum 16 characters), adopting enterprise password management, and enabling multi-factor authentication. Organizations were encouraged to conduct regular privileged account audits and eliminate unused credentials to strengthen defenses.

The conference also advocated for a layered security strategy to counter evolving threats. Key recommendations included integrating zero trust principles, enforcing least-privilege access, and deploying robust Privileged Access Management (PAM) to restrict lateral movement. Complementary measures like endpoint protection, employee training, and strong data encryption were highlighted as essential components. The overarching message: mastering cybersecurity fundamentals remains the most effective way to mitigate risks.

RSAC 2025 fostered critical discussions to advance a safer digital society. Attendees gained insights into emerging trends, honed their skills, and drew inspiration from unique perspectives and real-life stories. The conference featured two keynote stages: the West Stage at Moscone West, hosting sponsor keynotes, panels, and guest speakers, and the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts (YBCA) Keynotes, delivering high-demand sessions from industry leaders. Keynotes ran from Monday, April 28, to Thursday, May 1.

The West Stage welcomed prominent figures like two-time NBA Hall of Famer and philanthropist Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard, and actor-director Bryce Dallas Howard, who shared their personal journeys. The closing celebration featured DJ Irie and Jazz Mafia, setting the stage for a conversation between Award-Winning Actor, Singer, and Comedian Jamie Foxx and RSAC Executive Chairman Hugh Thompson. Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist Common also captivated attendees with his storytelling through his first rhyme.

“Many voices, One community is the theme for this year’s Conference and it couldn’t be more fitting based on our amazing lineup of keynote speakers from all walks of life,” said Linda Gray Martin, Senior Vice President, RSAC ^™ Conference. “We’re excited to bring our attendees a new keynote venue, as we expand our campus into the beautiful Yerba Buena Center of the Arts that will allow for more content and programming throughout the week.”

To accommodate those who would like to view and engage with content online, RSAC^™ Conference offers an On Demand Pass, which provides individuals access to West Stage Keynote live streaming plus session content from the traditional tracks within four hours of a session running live at the Conference.

The keynote speakers at RSAC^™ 2025 Conference includes:

• Dmitri Alperovitch, Executive Chairman, Silverado Policy Accelerator
• Dr. Edward Amoroso, Founder & CEO and Research Professor, TAG and NYU · 
• Charles Blauner, President, Cyber Aegis LLC ·
• Alexei Bulazel, Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for Cyber · 
• Cryptographers’ Panel: Whitfield Diffie, Honorary Fellow, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Ed Felten, Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Offchain Labs; Raluca Ada Popa, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley; Adi Shamir, Borman Professor of Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute, Israel; Vinod Vaikuntanathan, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Tal Rabin, Senior Principal Applied Scientist and Professor, AWS, UPenn (Moderator) · 
• Kirsten Davies, Founder & 3x Fortune 500 CISO, Institute for Cyber · 
• Jen Easterly, Former Director, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) · 
• John Fokker, Head of Threat Intelligence, Trellix · 
• Jamie Foxx, Award-Winning Actor, Singer & Comedian · 
• Tom Gillis, SVP & GM, Security, Data Center, Internet & Cloud Infrastructure Group, Cisco · 
• Ken Gonzalez, Managing Director, NightDragon · 
• Mike Horn, SVP & GM, Security Products, Splunk, a Cisco Company · 
• Bryce Dallas Howard, Actor and Director · 
• Ron Howard, Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker · 
• Chris Inglis, Former US National Cyber Director, MITRE Trustee · 
• Nadir Izrael, CTO & Co-Founder, Armis · 
• Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security · 
• Earvin “Magic” Johnson, 2x NBA Hall of Famer, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist · 
• Rob Joyce, Venture Partner, DataTribe · 
• Sandra Joyce, VP, Google Threat Intelligence, Google Cloud ·
• Arik Kleinstein, Managing Director, Glilot Capital Partners · 
• Chris Krebs, Chief Intelligence and Public Policy Officer, SentinelOne · 
• George Kurtz, CEO & Founder, CrowdStrike · 
• Robert M. Lee, CEO & Founder, Dragos, Inc. · 
• Jade Leung, CTO, UK AI Security Institute · 
• Kevin Mandia, Founder & General Partner, Ballistic Ventures · 
• Craig Newmark, Founder & CSR, Craig Newmark Philanthropies (Craigslist Founder) · 
• Jeetu Patel, EVP & Chief Product Officer, Cisco · 
• Nicole Perlroth, Cybersecurity Author, Investor & Advisor, Silver Buckshot Ventures · 
• Matt Radolec, Vice President, Incident Response & Cloud Operations, Varonis · 
• Daniel Rohrer, VP, Software Product Security, Architecture and Research, NVIDIA · 
• Jim Routh, Chief Trust Officer, Saviynt · 
• Vivian Schiller, Vice President & Executive Director, Aspen Digital, Aspen Institute · 
• Michael S. Schmidt, Reporter, New York Times and Co-Creator & Executive Producer, Zero Day · 
• Bruce Schneier, Security Technologist, Researcher, and Lecturer, Inrupt, Inc. · 
• Michael Sentonas, President, CrowdStrike · 
• Ram Shankar Siva Kumar, Data Cowboy, Microsoft; Harvard · 
• Jon Swartz, Senior Reporter, Techstrong Group · 
• The SANS Institute Panel: Heather Barnhart, DFIR Curriculum Lead, SANS Institute and Senior Director, Cellebrite; Tim Conway, ICS Curriculum Lead, SANS Institute; Rob T. Lee, Chief of Research & Head of Faculty, SANS Institute; Joshua Wright, Faculty Fellow and Senior Technical Director, SANS Institute and Counter Hack Innovations; and Ed Skoudis, President, SANS Technology Institute College (Moderator) · 
• Dr. Hugh Thompson, Executive Chairman & RSAC Conference Program Committee Chair, RSAC · 
• Mark Thurmond, Chief Operating Officer & Co-CEO, Tenable · 
• Kiersten Todt, President, Wondros · 
• Chenxi Wang, General Partner, Rain Capital · 
• Tomer Weingarten, CEO, Co-Founder, SentinelOne

RSAC 2025 reaffirmed its role as a cornerstone of the cybersecurity community, blending technical expertise with inspiring narratives to drive progress in the field.