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Microsoft's Blue Hat Conference

Posted by samzenpus on from the protect-the-collective dept.

SecureThroughObscure writes "ZDNet Zero-Day security blogger Nate McFeters got an exclusive look at the Microsoft Blue Hat conference. This is an invite-only conference that few media get to attend, but apparently McFeters was brought in with co-worker Rob Carter to talk about some vulnerabilities they had discovered with a few product security teams in attendence, and was also asked to do a guest blog posting about the conference at the Microsoft Blue Hat blog. McFeters also included several pictures of the conference and after conference events."

23 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft + blue... by ChenLiWay · · Score: 5, Funny

    hmm... nope, can't think of a joke.

    1. Re:Microsoft + blue... by Fluffeh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Replace Blue with Ass :)

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  2. But... by Samah · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is this specifically a dig at Red Hat?

    --
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    1. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'd say so, given the recent "Source Fource" and "Open Office XML" names... I wonder up to what extent the dreaded copyright law can be applied here. It'd be interesting to find out, but if OpenOffice is really a registered trademark, then OpenOffice.org might be in trouble if they decide to judge against Microsoft on that hypothetical case.

    2. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a take off of the Black Hat security conference, which is a vendor neutral. The terms Black hat and White hat are commonly used to describe the intent of security researchers who are either malicious (Black hat) or ethical (White hat).

    3. Re:But... by Artuir · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hm, suddenly I think of Best Buy's geek squad and shudder. I bet that's where these blue hat guys are being hired from, knowing Microsoft.

    4. Re:But... by Alex+Belits · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, this is purely to create confusion. They always mess with unrelated terms to gain perception of familiarity in users -- meaningless slogan "Digital Nervous System" mimicked DNS acronym, ".NET" imitates a top-level domain, etc.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    5. Re:But... by Chokolad · · Score: 5, Informative

      What users are you talking about? This is conference internal to Microsoft, with speakers invited (mostly) from Black Hat conference. It is limited to full-time employees ("blue badges") hence - BlueHat.

    6. Re:But... by CurlyG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wouldn't that be the "Blue Badges" conference ? No? Well where did they get the "Blue Hat" from then?

      --
      You know they call 'em fingers but I've never seen 'em fing. Oh, there they go.
  3. Wow by jflo · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is worst than the third time Janeway took the borg head on by becomming a drone... probable but highly unlikely. One would think that a company that boasts itself in the media as much as Microsoft does for being an open book enterprise, that one of their Vulcans would give them a more logical approach. Think about it...

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    WWPD - What Would Picard Do?
    1. Re:Wow by Miseph · · Score: 3, Funny

      Much like corporate purchasers, actually.

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      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  4. At least they don't clash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Blue Hats match the blue screens you see.

    1. Re:At least they don't clash by anomalous+cohort · · Score: 2, Informative

      However, you can bring back those thrilling days of yesteryear with this screen saver.

  5. More Hats? by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Look, I was happy with black hat / white hat. Grey hat was pushing it... what is next, the zebra pimp hat conference?

  6. Zebra pimp hat by Alex+Belits · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's for marketing people.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  7. i know what it is by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Funny

    accessories for the bsod...

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  8. Wrong title by Nonillion · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death Hat Conference

    There, fixed it for you...

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    "I bow to no man" - Riddick
  9. Re:WTH by dhavleak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    An invite-only confrence where they test how well their product does? No testing happens at Blue Hat. The idea is from MS to have the best from Black Hat speak to it's own people - an idea interchange. It's MS-internal because MS wants its employees to get exposure to this information, and so that MS employees can discuss specifics (with the invitees) that are relevant to them.


    You'll get skewered data that we all know their going to use to bash Linux and support Windows This site does not rely on data (skewed or otherwise) to put MS on the proverbial skewer. For an very recent example, look at the thread earlier today (where one journalist theorizes that MS may at some future date put some 'copyright cop' on Zunes, and /.ers were out in the numbers to condemn the evil empire without once stopping to notice that this simply wasn't true!)
  10. Why he was invited by Molesworth · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary says "McFeters was brought in with co-worker Rob Carter to talk about some vulnerabilities they had discovered with a few product security teams in attendence" - that makes it sounds like Nate and Rob found vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. If you actually read the guest blog entry, it says:
    "Microsoft had Rob Carter [...] and I come in to discuss some recent vulnerabilities that we've discovered with a few third-party vendors with whom Microsoft has tight relationships"

    Probably this is referring to Adobe - Nate and Rob have previously reported vulns to them and had them patched.

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  11. I felt... by Cow+Jones · · Score: 3, Funny

    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if a conference of blue-hats suddenly cried out:

    "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."

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    Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  12. Blue hats by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 3, Funny

    For some reason I was hoping this was about some Smurf fetish gathering.

  13. Is the keynote going to be.... by lokpest · · Score: 2, Funny

    Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.

  14. In my eyes blue hat == Fedora by Bazer · · Score: 2, Funny

    My first impression of the headline was: "Why the hell would Microsoft do a Fedora conference?"