So it's not surprising that held here this week had vendors, analysts and assorted others serving up huge dollops of FUD.

But two themes in particular appeared to be fueling much of the trepidation at this year's show; the recent and the change being forced on security models by the increasing and by users.

The attacks on and dozens of other high-tech companies including and Juniper Networks, by operatives apparently based in China have stirred a lot of emotions. Although there has been , the mere fact that even such technology savvy companies could be compromised for an extended period of time, is stirring considerable anxiety.

The attacks clearly appear to have convinced many in the industry that U.S. government, commercial and military networks are being systematically targeted in an escalating campaign to steal trade secrets and intellectual property. Many see the attacks as being state-sponsored and focused increasingly in scope almost daily.

Off the record, some say that the attacks against Google were not really about merely stealing e-mail accounts. Rather, they see a more fundamental compromise of the company's networks at a time when it is migrating more corporate and government accounts to its cloud infrastructure. The fact that the company has and has threatened to are indicative of a far more serious problem than has been let on.