Security Professionals Withdraw From Tech Conference After NSA Revelations
Add Josh Thomas to the list of security experts cutting ties with RSA Security after the Snowden leaks.
“If the allegations are true, a company that’s sole purpose to build trust – and that’s what cryptography is – and they can’t be trusted, then I don’t want to be part of that,” Thomas said to Raw Story. Thomas, “Chief Breaker” of Atreidis Partners, had been lined up to speak at the annual RSA conference in February. The conference gathers computer security researchers to discuss the latest in cryptography and security.
But the RSA brand is radioactive territory after Reuters published accusations that the firm colluded with the NSA to market flawed encryption. The conference is separate from the company, he noted. “They share a name and nothing else. To punish the conference for the company is probably not fair. The problem is that they do share a name. They are furthering the RSA brand. Everyone who gets on stage is furthering the credibility of the company.”
Mikko Hypponen, chief researcher for Finnish computer security firm F-Secure, withdrew in protest from a speaking engagement at conference, citing the Edward Snowden revelations as tainting the event published an open letter Monday describing his concerns to RSA and its parent firm, EMC Corp.
“On December 20th, Reuters broke a story alleging that your company accepted a random number generator from the National Security Agency, and set it as the default option in one of the your products, in exchange of $10 million. Your company has issued a statement on the topic, but you have not denied this particular claim,” Hypponen wrote in an open letter.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/26/security-professionals-withdraw-from-tech-conference-after-nsa-revelations/
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