The RSA Data Security Conference in San Jose, California, the premier event for anyone interested in hackers, cryptography and computer security, had a decent smattering of Irish attendees. The fat cat, of course, is Baltimore Technologies, which maintained a small, mobile army of red-shirted employees on its exhibition stand.

Baltimore continues to hold its title as most original and fun party-throwers, hosting this year's bash in a San Jose billiards hall. CEO Fran Rooney forked out on Baltimore-logoed shot glasses for everyone but declined to sing for the crowd.

Feisty little Viasec, on the other hand, easily took the best geek Tshirt award for a garment that features a piece of encrypted text for wearers to decode, a quote from cool crypto author Simon Singh, and in large letters, the phrase "Sniff this!". They say it makes sense once you crack the coded message, and we'll just have to believe them.