This week I had the opportunity to attend theRSA Conferencein San Francisco.

The theme for the conference this year was "Share. Learn. Secure" with a focus on recent breaches, surveillance programs and DDoS attacks with:

• Hundreds of educational sessions with insights, best practices and real implementation case studies
• Live keynote speakers
• Two expos featuring hundreds of solutions including Cisco and Sourcefire booths featuring threat-centric security solutions to reduce complexity, provide visibility, continuous control, and advanced threat protection

Cisco'sChris Young, SVP, Cisco Security Business Group, andPadmasree Warrior, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, delivered the keynote "The New Model of Security"sharing our vision and strategyIntelligent Cybersecurity for the Real World.

If you did not attend RSA  in person, starting March 3 you can view anon-demand webcast of the keynote.

Continuous monitoring and protection against threats across the attack continuum -before, during and after an attack is critical today.

Cisco demonstrated solutions in our booths and shared several new announcements at RSA to help address these threats:

1. "AMP Everywhere", Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Web and Email Security Appliances and Cloud Web Security.
2. OpenAppID, an open, application-focused detection language and processing module for Snort that enables users to create, share, and implement application detection.

As more and more applications, devices, and things are digitally connected to the "Internet of Everything" security capabilities become ever more important for government and citizens and business and consumers, as the challenges increases dramatically.

Cisco is launching theInternet of Things Security Grand Challenge. We're inviting you - the global security community - to propose practical security solutions across the markets being impacted daily by the IoT.

Join theThe Internet of Things Security Grand Challengewith awards from US$50,000 to US$75,000 for up to six recipients. Winning solutions will be announced and showcased at the Internet of Things World Forum this fall.