Paladin Capital Group Shares Takeaways from RSA Conference

The Paladin Capital Group team had an excellent time at #RSAC last week. The level of energy at this year’s conference was extraordinary, and we are thrilled to see it at full steam once again. After speaking with so many brilliant cyber entrepreneurs, policy experts, and technologists throughout RSA, our team wanted to share a few of our top thoughts:

First, we have to address the hottest topic of the conference – AI. Similar to how cloud and mobile technologies shifted the environment, AI and its derivative applications are going to become core business functions and essential aspects of enterprise IT infrastructure. But AI is not as new as the buzz suggests. Paladin been investing in companies, like CalypsoAI , that enable, monitor, manage, secure, and safeguard AI for the past 3 years. Although the widespread adoption of AI, particularly generative AI, is still in its relative infancy, our strategy for the last several years has been focused on securing the entire lifecycle of AI adoption as it becomes a core function for business processes. We are eager to see how global standards are developed, adopted, and applied to ensure the ethical and responsible development *and* deployment of AI technology, especially now that this issue has caught the attention of the President and his team.

Second, our cyber defenses are only as strong as the people behind them. Right now, the biggest need in cybersecurity is not more tools – we need more trained workers. There has been no shortage of discussion about this talent gap, but at RSA, we could sense a renewed vigor to tackle this stubborn challenge. For Paladin, we are looking at our existing portfolio companies, like RangeForce and Hack The Box , that are providing specialized programs not just to train individuals in cybersecurity but also upskill employees to ensure our workforce can keep pace with new technologies. Finding a solution to this systemic problem is going to take private-public partnerships on a massive scale, and we are confident that this is a priority for the cyber leaders within the Biden Administration.

Finally, there is a clear trend of commoditization within cybersecurity that we believe has the potential to significantly improve our society's defenses against cyber threats. With cyber products and services becoming more widely available and affordable, more small and medium-sized organizations will have easier access to the tools they need to prevent attacks. Our society is only as strong as its weakest link when it comes to cybersecurity, and commoditization will lead to increased adoption of measures that will reduce the impact of cyberattacks on businesses, governments, and individuals. Alongside the wider adoption, it is in turn increasing competition among providers and driving innovation. We believe commoditization is a positive trend that will enhance our society's digital defenses, as more people and organizations adopt technology that was previously only available to the largest enterprises.

Kudos to the organizers behind RSAC for another excellent and informative week. Weeks like these introduce new ideas into the cyber ecosystem and help us fine-tune our investment theses to ensure we can identify, invest in, and support the best early-stage technologies within the sector.