Senior White House Officials 'No Show' at Cybersecurity Conference

[Jimbo101]

BuzzFeed

As much of the world’s top cybersecurity professionals gathered for the annual RSA conference in San Francisco this week, one group was noticeably absent: top White House officials, who have in the past headlined sessions aimed at closing the gap between the administration and Silicon Valley on cybersecurity policy, were nowhere to be found.

The absence of senior administration officials at this year’s conference was particularly noticeable, given the White House’s unclear stance on several key cybersecurity issues, ranging from encryption technology to the way in which foreign states should be punished (or cited) for hacking into the US.

“The government’s retreat from RSA is disappointing. Securing America’s cyber infrastructure was the one campaign promise everyone had hoped that Trump would keep,” said David Cowan, a partner at the venture-capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, who attends RSA yearly.

Many at the conference whispered about the Trump administration cybersecurity executive order that never was. Several drafts that were leaked to the public were widely welcomed by cybersecurity experts, who saw the policies as largely a continuation of the policies laid out during the last months of the Obama administration. President Donald Trump was widely expected to sign the executive order on cybersecurity earlier this month, and it remained unclear if a new version was being drafted in the interim.

[LuckyLib]

1. His group is unable to know where they should be

because no one is in charge. Anywhere.

[fescuerescue]

2. I'm at this conference right now

The government departments are well represented.

DHS, CIA, FBI, plus even some foreign governments. Germany has a huge presence which surprised me.

I don't think the Whitehouse cancelled their presence, but rather just never arranged to be here (the agenda on this is known months ahead of time). Of course if they decided to show up at the last minute, their isn' a conference on Earth that wouldn't make it work.

[Adrahil]

3. Barron was unable to get off school to attend.

He is amazing with The Cyber ya know.