At RSA 2017, Security Leaders Push Wider Industry Collaboration

"We can't have security folks on one side and entrepreneurs on the other side … This isn’t a middle school dance. People can't be afraid to mingle," Ramzan said. "What ripple will you create to help your organization build a business-driven security strategy?"

Ramzan suggested security teams can take three steps to bridge that gap. First, he said security teams should treat risk as a science instead of a dark art, creating scenario analysis and risk frameworks to handle security risks. Second, he said security teams should simplify what they control, consolidating down the number of security vendors they work with and integrating them. Finally, he said security teams should plan for the event of a security incident, including forming an incident response plan, with budget and collaboration across all departments in an organization.

For solution providers, the push to bridge the gap between security vendors, as well as between security teams and business leaders, presents a significant opportunity, Accenture Security Global Managing Director Kelly Bissell said. He said companies are looking to consolidate the number of vendors they work with, looking to integrate their solutions for a more effective security strategy.

"I see us as a super-aggregator of technology to solve the problem of security risk through the lens of that industry," Bissell said. "That’s how we think about it."

The ultimate goal, Intel Security's Young said, is to make the world safe for technology usage. He said little changes that the industry has already made, as well as pledging to further collaborate, will help it ultimately deliver more effective security for customers.

"Enemies are moving faster and scaling. We have to do the same thing. That’s the only way were going to make this work: if we come together and find our own ways to scale and move faster."