Writing in American Banker this week, ITAC President Anne Wallace challenged RSA conference-goers to rethink computer security in a way that compels consumers to embrace it. It’s time they think more like consumer product developers and marketers, and makes her case in the excerpt below:

Consumer electronics companies are masters at understanding human behavior and creating products that anticipate and respond to human wants and needs. The most successful devices, and the applications that support them, are indispensable to their owners. By understanding how we behave today and what we will want tomorrow, Apple, Motorola and Research In Motion create compelling relationships between device and user.

The smartest processes, and the best technologies, are not effective if people do not want to use them, avoid them or will not update them.  Technology and processes depend on user adoption and consistent use to be effective. This appears to be the Achilles heel in our current approach to cybersecurity.

Is it crazy to suggest that we create new gadgets and technologies for security that are appealing and that people will want to use? It must be possible to design a technology that delivers such obvious value that people will want to have a relationship. I admit it is hard to imagine consumers lining up for the latest version of MyCyberSecurityBlanket the way they did for the iPad, or downloading the latest security app the way they downloaded Angry Birds, but shouldn’t that be our inspiration?

In order to recruiting citizens in the war on cybercrime, the industry must develop and market tools that are easy-to-use, intuitive, unobtrusive and maybe even emotionally rewarding.

Maybe there will be an app for that in 2012.

This year, RSA is celebrating its 20th year of hosting this event. The timing of the 20th anniversary also comes at a time when when cybersecurity has never been soo vital to the success of businesses and governments. It is no secret that nefarious hackers from inside the U.S. and abroad are aggressively targeting our nation’s infrastructure, businesses and even consumers.

This year, the ITAC blog will be doing a series of podcasts with industry and government leaders who are attending and presenting at the RSA conference. We would like for you to think of our blog as the one-stop-destination for all news related to RSA.

So, please stay tuned and if you have any RSA-related news to share, we want to hear from you!

Of course this is not a new revelation by any stretch of the imagination. But, judging from many of the discussions going on from the RSA show, we can safely conclude that we are deep in a cyber war. And, despite the vast number of vendors offering various solutions, we can’t seem to crack the code for keeping the bad guys at bay.

As pointed out to us by renowned industry analyst and Computerworld blogger Eric Ogren at the show, when someone turns on their television set, there is absolutely no risk of being hacked or becoming a victim of identity theft. It is a completely secure system – always has and will be. Unfortunately, in the cyber world, there are too many platforms, applications, and poor standards that don’t keep systems safe, creating the perfect storm for nefarious characters to cause damage.

It seems that the “wild west” days of the .dot com era has defined our approach to the digital age – meaning that innovations, VC funding and multiple competing solutions have created too many platforms with too many holes in them.

So, what do we do know? Go back to being a paper driven society? Time to break out the type writers and copy machines? No way. Technology has made us more productive, smarter and more beautiful (well, that may be a stretch). We just need to find away to make our digital lives more safe.

Melissa Hathaway

It’s been quite a week when it comes to cyber security. First up, computer spies hack into the most valuable Pentagon asset, the Joint Strike Fighter Project. In response to this, the Obama administration immediately announce plans to create a new military command to improve U.S. offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare.

Then, we have the RSA conference and things got a bit strange. First, National Security Agency (NSA) director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander told attendees that the agency has no desire to take the responsibilities of managing U.S. cyber security from the Department of Homeland Security. Then, Melissa Hathaway, the acting senior director for cyberspace for the Obama administration, spoke at the conference and offered little detail on how the administration might seek to enhance the government’s cyber efforts. The one takeaway from her speech was that that national cyber security would be managed from the top-down by the White House.

So, what really went down this week? We had probably the most significant data breach of a U.S. defense system in history — shining a very bright light on this issue. We certainly applaud the efforts of the quickness in announcing plans for a new military command. But, the RSA conference leaves us a bit baffled. The NSA does not want to take over cyber security? Why? Do they not want to deal with the turf battle between DHS? Or, is it because cyber security is such a huge issue and they don’t want to touch it? And, finally, why no more details from Ms. Hathaway? We welcome all thoughts and feedback!