Warwick Ashford of Computer Weekly explained that some of the most recent sessions of RSA Conference 2011 were the best, particularly the one in which the SANS Institute "ran through some hard, cold truths".

It asserted that end-to-end encryption is not a "panacea for data breaches"; Ed Skoudis, founder of InGuardians consultancy and a lecturer at the SANS Institute, said these decrypt data for processing in applications.

As a result, attackers are going after the data while it is in memory, presented in clear text. "Virtualisation is no fix either, as the attackers are also able to capture whatever is in virtual memory too," Mr Ashford added.