The 2025 RSAC Messaging Tour is LIVE!

(The video was too large to upload to multiple platforms, so please use the above button link to watch on YouTube.)

🔥 Top Term Leaderboard 🔥

1. AI (43 mentions) - The undisputed heavyweight champion of the show floor

2. Data (32 mentions)

3. Identity (28 mentions)

4. Cloud (16 mentions)

5. Zero Trust (14 mentions)

6. Platform (14 mentions)

7. Threat (12 mentions)

8. Resilience (10 mentions)

9. Exposure Management (8 mentions)

10. Human (7 mentions)

11. Supply Chain (7 mentions)

12. SecOps (6 mentions)

13. Non-human Identity (5 mentions)

14. AppSec (5 mentions)

🏆 Special Recognition Awards 🏆

Most Unique Phrase

• WraithWatch: Only vendor to claim "Gain-of-Function for cyber defense" - pandemic terminology repurposed!

Rhyme Award

• Mesh: "Security Jurassic to Data Fabric" — Fearlessly meshing prehistoric security with modern data fabric and included a T-Rex in their booth, and rhyming while their at it

The Head-Scratcher Award

• KiteWorks: Brought goats. Enough said.

The "Wow" Award

• Torq: Monster-truck-sized booth swagger - I actually said in the video, "I remember when they were just a small startup. That's crazy."

IoT Award

• UniFi: I was struck by their clean booth and tight brand that related to their product

Regional Messaging Award

• Ireland: "Invest in Extraordinary" — Where is the next Tines?

The Curious Booth

• Sublime Security: The curious "haven't seen them before" discovery with "Email security reimagined"

Rising Term Award

• Supply Chain: Officially embedded in the messaging lexicon with 7 mentions

New Category Creator

• Security Scorecard: SCDR - Supply Chain Detection & Response. Will it stick?

Closest to Nature Award

• BeyondTrust: "Outfitters," "Identity Wilderness" - Committed to the outdoor survival theme

Best Mascot

• Databee: Buzzy, branding win, and I actually waved back :)

Coolest AI Startup

• steg.ai: Forensic watermarking via steganography—next-level conceal-and-reveal tech

Best Video Participant

• rewind: I literally "rewinded" (pun intended) this clip several times and laughed out loud when I saw the staffer throw me a peace sign

Keep it Simple Award

• Detectify: "Fewer scans. More results." Super simple messaging and booth layout. Definitely caught my eye. Less can be more at RSAC.

Nostalgia Award

• Zafran High: Had me some high school party nostalgia when passing this booth

I couldn't think of an award but this magician at the Traceable booth took over a corner lot and drew a worthy audience

Cozy Award

• Qwiet - totally wanted to take a seat in the Qwiet booth. "Coffee fixes and code fixes" was a smart play.

Clever Award

• Stream.Security: Had a clever concept / display of socks that related to their key product use cases

Bold Pivot

• Tenable: "The Exposure Management Company" - pivot from the traditional "vulnerability management" category

Experiential Award

• CommVault: had a tunnel that was pretty intense, which led into an experiential marketing enclosure, which I avoided.

Most Focused on Solving a Specific Problem Award

• Conveyor: "Suck in Security Questionnaire Hell?" - and shows how AI Agents can help security teams tackle dreaded questionnaires. I think this is a focused message

🔍 Truth Bombs & Industry Insights

The AI Paradox

• Everyone's simultaneously weaponizing defenders with AI while acknowledging its known/unknown risks

The Marketing Stigma

• Actual quote from my tour: "I just heard a guy with a mic say, 'I don't want to bore you with bland marketing bs.' That's exactly what I'm talking about. In our industry with the stigma against the word marketing." Here's the photo of where I heard that.

Dystopian Award

• Weeds: "Erasing employees' memories is the only way to secure data" wins most terrifying pitch

Consistency Prize

• CrowdStrike: "We stop breaches" slogan is staying strong for several years and reminds us sometimes simple works

The Non-Human Takeover - With 5 dedicated vendor pitches on non-human identity management, the machines are officially invited to the identity party

Buzzword Singularity: "Agentic AI for SecOps" represents peak jargon density, yet I have to admit I like how it sounds

Most Honest Booth: Insane Cyber: "Tell adversaries to flock off" wins for most attitude with plausible deniability

Conclusion

At RSAC 2025, AI has completely hijacked the conversation. Vendors are bringing actual goats to the show floor. And the effort to create machine and agent identities is officially on. My tour of the industry proves that we are still in a state of utter chaos and confusion. I also left wondering - How will the industry respond to the biggest leap in innovation we've seen since the Cloud wars began a decade ago?

Jensen Huang started this year by declaring it will be the year of agentic AI. He was right, it's everywhere, and Cyber is no exception. AI ranked as the most used messaging term by far. And it's no surprise since 2025 will continue to see an outpouring of AI agents that are going to do more and more tasks for humans, and increasingly for security analysts. Identifying those agents, understanding their risk, tracking their activities, and ensuring their safe usage will become the name of the game.

One thing is clear. The vendor innovation race to secure against AI, and to defend with AI, is on like a battle of digital monster trucks.