

Security experts boycott prominent security conference over NSA ties - JayDoza
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/07/at-least-six-security-experts-boycott-prominent-security-conference-over-nsa-ties/

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dsl
The RSA Conference was never where "security experts" went anyway. Sure some
smart people occasionally showed up and talked, but it was mostly because
their employers wanted exposure.

RSAC always was and always will be for suits that need to spend money and the
vendors who need to take it from the,. All the cool kids with innovative
research will be at BSidesSF.

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drdeadringer
What do you think will happen at the conferences "security experts" do go to?
DefCon, for example.

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tptacek
Defcon is more of a recreational conference than a professional venue. Black
Hat, CanSec... maybe Recon, HITB... those are the professional venues. CRYPTO
and ASIACRYPT are major crypto venues.

Nothing is going to happen at any of them. RSAC is an oddity in that it is a
conference that cuts across the whole industry that is "owned" by a single
vendor.

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rdl
I'm sure you're aware BH recently shot itself in the head by getting rid of
their last connection to the Jeff Moss days; it looks like it's rapidly headed
toward "just another RSA".

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dmfdmf
Here is a quote from RSA rep Hugh Thompson after explaining his
"disappointment" with the cancellations;

"Security has risen in the agenda of almost every company and every government
in a way that we've never seen before," he said. "I think that the security
dialogue is more intense than it has ever been."

Isn't this a bit like the murderer who kills his parents and then appeals to
the mercy of the court because he is an orphan?

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x0054
Though unrelated, today I was watching a 2006 episode of Boston Legal where
one of the characters makes an impassioned argument about how Americans have
next to no privacy nowadays (2006) and how the NSA is already reading all of
our emails and listening to all of the phone calls. Anyone who was involved in
any way with security knew perfectly well what NSA was doing, and yet it took
this long for people to care. And truth be told, outside our technobabble no
one cares still. Sigh....

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tn13
Ordinary people generally do not understand the second order effects of
government decisions. That is why you need to explain them the consequences of
these decisions in a more dramatic way.

I am new to America but from little experience I can say that if you really
want American to move their asses then should somehow link the issue with some
of the American sports. Say that NSA is actually fixing NBA, MLB matches and
you might have an uncontrollable situation in the country.

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Karunamon
That's exactly it. There's a bit of a gulf in people's minds between "The
government spies on people" and "The government spies on _me_ ".

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einhverfr
I think the significance of this goes way beyond a conference and is
indicative of the fact that due to the NSA overreach, we cannot trust
corporations with security the way we used to. Do I think the NSA had some
ties with RSA in this matter? Probably. Given Shamir's treatment though by the
US government they can't be on perfect terms, but the fact remains,
corporations have lost the trust factor. We can't trust Microsoft, Google,
RSA, or anyone else.

I think this is the beginning of a major industry shakeup and the word for the
ages is "hubris ante nemesis."

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junto
I'm waiting for the website:

[http://HowManyPeopleHaveNowBoycottedTheRsaConference.com](http://HowManyPeopleHaveNowBoycottedTheRsaConference.com)

