At RSAC, economic instability is not impacting private cybersecurity firms, so far

On the floor at this year’s RSAC Conference, exhibitors warned about threats, bad actors, and various dangers online—but one thing that’s of little concern, so far, is the current US economic situation.

Perhaps that’s to be expected. RSAC is a cybersecurity-first event, and that subsector of the tech industry is likely to be less affected by White House policies on trade than hardware and software. People IT Brew chatted with on the floor said they haven’t noticed an appreciable decline in business yet.

At software company Jamf, which specializes in Apple device management, things are largely chugging along. VP of Portfolio Strategy Michael Covington told IT Brew that the company has yet to see a shift.

“We’ve continued to see refresh cycles in the industries that we’re focused on,” Covington said. “Mobile has been probably the fastest growing area of our business, and that’s an area where, up to this point, I have seen no slowing and no indication of slowing.”

Jeff Shiner, 1Password co-CEO, told IT Brew that the economic instability is not affecting the password management company “significantly.” But while the business side is stable, Shiner said, instability can affect employees, which in turn has ramifications on productivity.

“Your company is made up of people,” he said. “And so when people feel that uncertainty, you want to be able to address that, not just for your employees, but in terms of what it means from a product perspective.”

That might be in part because White House policies on cybersecurity, including a number of staffing cuts to federal agencies like CISA, have, in the view of some experts, led to a less robust security posture. But such actions also can open the door for the private sector.

For Debbie Gordon, founder and CEO of cybersecurity simulator Cloud Range, the fundamentals of the industry subsector are strong. And while one customer has lost out on a grant, the headwinds from Washington aren’t having a huge effect from where she’s standing.

“Cyberattacks are not letting up; they’re going to be worse, especially attacks on critical infrastructure and operational technology,” Gordon said.