RSA 2011: McAfee and RSA join forces

And RSA chief insists that the cloud is safe, while security guru Bruce Schneier tells delegates why he thinks the threat of cyber war is exaggerated

McAfee and RSA have formed a partnership that they say will provide customers with solutions that address complex security challenges and lower risk across their IT infrastructure.

This was just one of several key announcements made today at the RSA conference in San Francisco.

The companies, who have formally joined each other's interoperability partner programmes, say they will have a more comprehensive view of security risk.

"Addressing new, complex and ever-changing threats requires a holistic approach to security that closed environments can't offer. Our open McAfee platforms enable partners, like RSA, to provide more secure customer environments," said Dave DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee.

This follows several calls from the industry for a more joined-up approach to security.

Meanwhile, in his keynote speech, Art Coviello, executive vice-president at EMC and executive chairman of RSA, outlined a strategy to help convince end users of the benefits of deploying mission-critical applications in cloud environments.

He claimed that the cloud can meet the security, compliance and performance conditions of any business process, even those with strict regulatory requirements such as PCI-DSS, but that companies will need to revise their long-standing beliefs around security and deploy existing technologies in creative new ways.

However, he admitted that actually trusting mission-critical business to the cloud requires the ability to inspect and monitor cloud conditions first-hand, not just rely on outside attestations.

"The promise is that you can achieve safety in the cloud. The promise is that we can fundamentally do security differently than we've ever done before. The proof comes from the fact that when we leverage virtualisation technology we can demonstrate control and visibility, the key elements of trust, in cloud environments."

Meanwhile in a keynote later today, BT chief security technology officer Bruce Schneier will argue that the threat of cyber warfare has been greatly exaggerated.

Schneier told the BBC yesterday that the public has been left confused by the press coverage of high profile cyber attacks, such as those carried out by China on Google in 2009, the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran's nuclear facilities and the hacking of Republican politician Sarah Palin's email.

He warned that using sensational phrases such as "cyber armageddon" only serve to inflame the situation.

"What we are seeing is not cyber war but an increasing use of war-like tactics and that is what is confusing us.

"We don't have good definitions of what cyber war is, what it looks like and how to fight it," he added.