At RSA 2010, the secure and the insecure (photos)

Cybersecurity professional from around the world met in San Francisco this week at the RSA 2010 conference to explore some of the nefarious behind-the-scenes activity happening everyday in computers around the world.

An educational opportunity to learn from hackers and security professionals alike, at RSA, it's clear just how vulnerable the world's digital infrastructure is.

U.S. Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt announced the publication of the five-page summary of NSPD54, the secret cybersecurity directive signed by President Bush two years ago.

Inside the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Symantec featured an exhibit which visualized the world of criminal hacker organizations, and displayed the tools of the trade of the black-market information sharing industry.

No longer do the threats arise from a few rogue hackers. Nowadays, the business of computer crime has grown into a powerful industry, with the trading of information becoming an organized, and profitable, career.

Hacker Marc Maiffret, chief security architect at FireEye, helps drive technology innovation in the cause of fighting malware.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano speaks at the RSA conference on Wednesday, talking a bit about the Einstein 3 technology, which is used in efforts to thwart in-progress cyberattacks by sharing information with the National Security Agency.

Robert Mueller, speaking Thursday, said that criminal organizations, as well as individuals, militant groups, and foreign states, pose a growing threat to U.S. security as they target government and private computer networks.

Stuart McClure, general manager and senior vice president of the Risk and Compliance business unit at McAfee, on Wednesday demonstrated how someone might use Twitter as a command and control center for compromised PCs working to hack a bank account.

Scott Charney, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing, spoke Tuesday, the same day Microsoft released its new identity management software. Charney also said that Microsoft is working on a prototype national ID card system in Germany that is designed to give consumers control over the amount of personal data they share with specific organizations.