Vegas tech convention looking at security in cyberspace

Monday, May 6, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Computer security will be a key focus of a large technology show this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Networld+Interop, a six-day conference and exhibition of products that use the Internet, began Sunday with a series of panels and seminars. Sessions will be conducted through Friday. A trade show with about 400 exhibitors begins Tuesday and runs through Thursday.

The event is closed to the public.

Officials with Key3Media Group Inc., one of the largest information technology show organizers in the world and the owner of the annual Comdex show in Las Vegas every fall, wouldn't disclose how many people they expect to attend the 17th annual Networld+Interop show.

However, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is gearing for attendance of 60,000, which would be about 14 percent below last year's estimated 70,000 people and 20 percent below the 75,000 who came in 2000.

"Safeguarding computer networks from cyberterrorism will be an important topic at this year's event," said Kevin Kempskie, a show spokesman. "Since Sept. 11, the industry is particularly conscious of would-be enemies.

"They may not be in the form of a plane flying into a building or a bomb going off, but it could be an attack on the computer systems of the U.S. Treasury, the government's defense systems or our financial institutions."

A security panel titled "Cyberland Defense -- Rethinking Network Security for a Dangerous World" is one of the show's highlights Wednesday.

Some of the biggest names in the technology industry -- Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Technologies -- will exhibit at the show. Executives from those companies are among the scheduled keynote speakers. Serge Tchuruk, chairman and chief executive officer of Alcatel, and Maynard Webb, president of eBay Technologies, speak Tuesday and John Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems Inc., is scheduled Wednesday. Two events that involve companies exhibiting at the show are likely to create a buzz among participants. Cisco Systems is scheduled to release its earnings and the industry will get its first look at the newly merged Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer Corp.