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Coronavirus Concerns Dog RSA Conference 2020 Kickoff

As this year’s annual RSA cybersecurity conference got underway last week, a virus loomed large, and it wasn’t the computer-borne variety.

connection 4884862 640smallVerizon, AT&T and International Business Machines Corp. were among more than a dozen big tech companies that pulled out of the San Francisco event amid concerns about China’s outbreak of the covid-19 coronavirus, as local KRON TV reports.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, estimating an influx of 40,000 people into the city for the conference, said in a statement that municipal officials had been “working with global, federal, and state health agencies to monitor the virus in order to protect residents, businesses and visitors.” Breed called the risk of being infected with covid-19 “low, as the virus is not circulating within our community.”

Global stock markets, however, caught a bug. On February 24, the kickoff to the five-day conference, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 1,000 points. It was the blue-chip stock benchmark’s worst day in two years. As CNN reports, investors were digesting the coronavirus’ potential hit to corporate profits and global economic growth.

Within San Francisco’s Moscone Center, panelists discussed other varieties of threats. A presentation from former National Security Agency analyst Patrick Wardle focused on the risks from hackers’ tendency to reuse existing malware, as Wired reports. John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, discussed the Justice Department’s push for countries, including the United States, to adopt legislation that allows law enforcement to access encrypted communications, according to The Washington Post.

Cisco, meanwhile, rolled out a new cloud-based security platform called SecureX—although it was originally code-named Thanos after the Marvel supervillain, reports MarketWatch. Another subject of discussion was the potential threat from more devices being able to listen in on personal conversations, as USA Today reports. Researchers who spent six months streaming 125 hours of popular Netflix TV shows to voice-activated smart speakers found that the gadgets accidentally activated up to 19 times a day. While half of those activations lasted less than six seconds, the other half exposed up to 43 seconds of audio.

Cybersecurity company Netwrix’s 2020 Data Risk & Security Report, which was also unveiled at the conference, found that while 91% of organizations say they’re sure their sensitive data is secure, 24% discovered sensitive data outside of protected locations anyway.

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