Bracknell, United Kingdom— The organisers of RSA® Conference, Europe 2004 revealed today that earlier this month, registration for the 3 day event in Barcelona topped 1,000 making it one of the largest security industry conferences in Europe this year. Also at the event at the Princesa Sofia Hotel in Barcelona, presentations were made to the winners of the second annual European Information Security Awards.

Tim Pickard, Managing Director of RSA Conference Europe, reported positive feedback from delegates at this year’s event. “With so many conferences to choose from, the level of attendance reinforces the position of the RSA Conference as a leader in this sector. Year after year, the strength and breadth of our speaker line-up means that security industry professionals see this as a ‘must-attend’ event”.

Speakers ranged from project leaders relating their real-life experiences in implementing some of the technologies on show at the Conference to government officials in charge of setting policy – and industry analysts sharing their views on changes and trends in the market.

Before a packed auditorium, Art Coviello, CEO of RSA Security, presented the annual European Industry Security Awards to this year’s winners. He was joined on stage by Dr Burt Kaliski of RSA Laboratories representing the independent judging panel that included Prof Dr. Kai Rannenberg from Goethe University Frankfurt; Prof Peter Landrock, Founder and Executive Chairman from Cryptomathic; Bart Preneel from the Katholieke University in Leuven; Danny de Temmerman from the European Commission; and Michael Bartholomew of European Telecommunications Network Operators Association.

The awards were presented in 4 categories: Research and Development, Implementation, Education and Training, and Policy. Coviello, said: “The aim of these awards is not only to recognise the achievement of excellence by the winners but also to show others what can be achieved.”

The European Information Security Awards 2004 Winners:

Research and Development: awarded to IBM Research, Zurich for their Direct Anonymous Attestation protocol, developed in collaboration with HP and Intel. As he handed the Award to Jan Camenisch of IBM, Dr Kaliski commented “by building a bridge from advanced cryptographic theory to industry practice, this team is helping enhance user confidence in trusted computing.”

Implementation: The award recognising security excellence in end user implementation was presented to Tony Egan representing the Irish Revenue Commissioners for their successful implementation of the Revenue Online Service (ROS). Margaret Whelan, ROS Strategy Manager commented, “since the early 1990s, we have been committed to reducing customer compliance costs and improving levels of customer service. The ‘Revenue Online Service’ was introduced in 2000 to provide a fast, secure and cost effective way for businesses to conduct business electronically with the Revenue. The number of services available has been expanded significantly in the last four years”.

Education and Training: accepted by Iain McLeod of Easy i for their development of an enterprise-wide corporate information security programme to their client’s 30,000 employees worldwide. “Our role is to guide our clients and deliver education and training projects which are innovative, entertaining and effective and we are delighted to have received recognition for our work in this area,” commented McLeod

Policy: awarded to Christopher Altman of UNISCA (United Nations International Student Conference Amsterdam) for his paper on Converging Technologies where he considers the issues of convergence, conflict and complexity and reviews discoveries in still relatively immature areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology.

About the European Information Security Awards
To view the winning project summaries visit www.2004.rsaconference.com/europe/ or contact Trish Pomeroy at RSA Security on +44 (0)1344 781000 or email awardsinfo@rsasecurity.com

About the RSA Conference
Currently in its 5th year, RSA Conference, Europe brings together decision-makers and influencers from all major markets, including consumer, education, financial, government, computer networking, telecommunications, finance and media for one of the industry’s premier information security events. The RSA Conference continues in San Francisco (14-18 February 2005) and returns to Europe in Vienna in 2005 on 19-19 October. For more information, visit www.rsaconference.com.