Tens of thousands of tech-industry veterans descend upon San Francisco’s Moscone Center from Apr. 20 to 24 for the RSA Conference, a weeklong dive into a world that’s equal parts mysterious, technical, and terrifying: cybersecurity. With corporate victims still top of mind—Home Depot (HD), J.P.Morgan (JPM), Sony (SNE)—executives are looking for answers. Let the paranoia begin.
Three participants to know
Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer, Yahoo (YHOO)
An outspoken executive who’s not afraid to call “bull”
Bruce Schneier, Crytogenius
A privacy advocate riding a wave of interest in his new book, Data and Goliath
Alec Baldwin, Actor
Delivering a keynote on the intersection of celebrity and privacy
One quote to know
“This is not a technology problem, this is a mind-set problem.”
—RSA president Amit Yoran, in prepared remarks for his planned keynote at this year’s conference
One controversy to know
Two numbers to know
$76.9 billion — Total information-security spend in 2015, as predicted by research firm Gartner
28,500 — Attendance of 2014 conference, making it the largest information-security confab in the world
Three 2015 conference session titles
Apr. 19 — “Metasploit Kung Fu”
Apr. 21 — “Escaping Security’s Dark Ages”
Apr. 21 — “Threat Intelligence Is Like Three-Day Potty Training”
Top targets for cyber-espionage
Source: Verizon
Four of our favorite RSA conference themes over the years:
1995 — Egyptian Scarab Seals
1999 — Norse/Viking Runes
2005 — Prohibition Rumrunners
2009 — Edgar Allan Poe
This article originated in the May 1, 2015 issue of Fortune magazine.