Talk On Chinese Cyber Army Pulled From Black Hat

Trailrunner7 writes "A talk on China's state-sponsored offensive security efforts scheduled for the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas later this month has been pulled after concerns were raised by people within the Chinese and Taiwanese government about the talk's content. The presentation was to be delivered by Wayne Huang, CTO of Armorize, an application security company with R&D operations in Taiwan. The talk was billed as an in-depth, historical look at the offensive capabilities and operations of China's so-called cyber-army."

Comments

Slashdot sensationalism

[SquarePixel]

Let's compare the two different stories that were going to be posted as authors duped.

Screenshot

Worded quite differently, no? This published summary accuses the Chinese and Taiwanese government about it, while the other one just says they had concerns about their good relationships in the community.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[TubeSteak]

Worded quite differently, no? This published summary accuses the Chinese and Taiwanese government about it, while the other one just says they had concerns about their good relationships in the community.

FTA: Caleb Sima, Armorize's CTO and co-founder, said on his Twitter feed yesterday that the talk had been pulled.
"I had to pull our blackhat talk. Taiwanese gov is prohibiting it due to sensitive materials. Unreal."

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Monkeedude1212]

Indeed. I think it deserves a golf clap.

Even though this article tries to make me blame our Oriental cousins for pulling a talk about them, how many times has the States tried to brush things like Gitmo under the rug to the rest of the world, with reasoning along the line of "We know its bad, but it's a necessary evil in this day and age".

Even if they are right that it's necessary, its still two faced to think other countries shouldn't have their own skeletons.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

... and the rest of the world under Bush with orgasmic abandon published and presented every paper they could manage to produce on the matter.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

... and the rest of the world under Niggerbama with niggergasmic abandon said "Hey if a nigger doesn't care then maybe it's not so bad.", and that's why Niggerbama didn't close Nigmo bay...

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though this article tries to make me blame our Oriental cousins for pulling a talk about them, how many times has the States tried to brush things like Gitmo under the rug to the rest of the world, with reasoning along the line of "We know its bad, but it's a necessary evil in this day and age".

Only once. We're sorry and we'll never do it again.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Dishevel]

When was it that the US Government stopped people from talking about gitmo?

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

Gitmo was a poor example. A better one would have been the "Collateral Murder" video posted on Wikileaks last spring, which the U.S. Government attempted to suppress. Now Julian Assange is very likely on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and is afraid for his own safety. And the safety of Bradley Manning is seriously in question.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[abigor]

Sounds pretty much the same to me. If you think the Chinese "security community" is somehow separate from the Chinese government, you are dreaming.

Re:Slashdot sensationalism

[Dishevel]

I actually like the unedited version of that video better. Wikileaks did a serious fail on that one. I like them too. *Sigh*

China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

China is directing the single largest, most intensive foreign intelligence gathering effort since the Cold War against the United States.... http://www.securityweek.com/chinas-cyber-threat-growing

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[SquarePixel]

China is directing the single largest, most intensive foreign intelligence gathering effort since the Cold War against the United States....

http://www.securityweek.com/chinas-cyber-threat-growing

Or could it be that US is using this as an excuse to take even more control over the Internet?

This is nothing new. I remember reading about such things in the 90's. US is good with propaganda, including entertainment and everything. Just see cold war.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Tisha_AH]

So now we can pussy-foot around China to be careful not to offend our biggest trading partner and debt holder.

Chinese people want a good life, just like everyone else. China, the government is a friggen evil empire.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

And the United States is directing the single largest, most intensive foreign invasion effort since WW2 against the Middle East and the rest of the world....

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[poetmatt]

us is trying to do so, but not successfully.

there are lots of legal challenges that are leaning towards that they won't be able to do so.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[ground.zero.612]

China is directing the single largest, most intensive foreign intelligence gathering effort since the Cold War against the United States....

http://www.securityweek.com/chinas-cyber-threat-growing

Or could it be that US is using this as an excuse to take even more control over the Internet?

This is nothing new. I remember reading about such things in the 90's. US is good with propaganda, including entertainment and everything. Just see cold war.

Or could it be that the world really isn't actually filled with hippies like you that think "free love" magically solves all of our problems, and is some kind of fairy dust that you just sprinkle on oppressive totalitarians to infect them with patchouli stink fantasy?

The problem with ultra liberals like yourself is that you seem to think everyone wants to be your friend. The reality is that they don't. Many of them just want to steal/copy your success, or learn how to prevent you from obtaining it.

It would be really nice if China shut down the US internet grid. Even if it was just for a few minutes. I say it would be nice, because I am always amused by the rhetoric spewed by the defender of my enemies.

Yes, let's call a spade a spade. China, one of the worst human rights violators on Earth, if not the worst, is our enemy. Just because we trade with them does not make them our friend, nor our frienemy.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[interval1066]

"Or could it be that US is using this as an excuse to take even more control over the Internet?"

Damn US. If it wasn't for the US the world would be such a happy place.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[FriendlyLurker]

there are lots of legal challenges that are leaning towards that they won't be able to do so.

Those "legal challenges" appear to just melt away when you waive a "National Security" orders around.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Dishevel]

You are correct why would China want to gather intelligence on the US. If you think about it, it's not really possible. So of course any mention of it is just a ruse.

Why is it that I am plagued with the ability for comments written by fucktards to constantly pop out to the forefront?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn US. If it wasn't for the US the world would be such a happy place.

Wow.

I hope you forgot your "/sarc" tag on that one. Otherwise I'm thinking you need a "-1 ignorant" mod.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Mister Whirly]

Actually, far from the enemy, China is the chief lender of money that keeps the US afloat. China is so tied to us economically the threat of them becoming our "enemy" is laughable. If they truly wanted to beat the US, all they would need to do is stop loaning the US money and cash in all of their debts to the US. But seeing they own a huge chunk of the US already, it is in their best economic interests to make sure the US is doing okay.

And lighten up Francis - pointing out that the US is good at propaganda (duh) does not make one a "hippie". Do you really think the US isn't good a propaganda, or do you have a quota of people you need to call "hippies" every day? Or do you just think anyone to the left of Glenn Beck is an "ultra-liberal"?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[theIsovist]

Yes, let's call a spade a spade. China, one of the worst human rights violators on Earth, if not the worst, is our enemy. Just because we trade with them does not make them our friend, nor our frienemy.

In terms of human rights violations, are we that much better when we fund the horrible working conditions to get our electronics at a cheap price?

And mods - with all the wonderful, colorful buzzwords up there, how has the parent avoided a troll modifier?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[ground.zero.612]

Actually, far from the enemy, China is the chief lender of money that keeps the US afloat. China is so tied to us economically the threat of them becoming our "enemy" is laughable.

This lending you speak of is the problem that got us where we are. Money lenders are villains, and borrowing is a disease that has infected the masses.

If they truly wanted to beat the US, all they would need to do is stop loaning the US money and cash in all of their debts to the US. But seeing they own a huge chunk of the US already, it is in their best economic interests to make sure the US is doing okay.

I think they do truly want to beat us, and I think lending us money was the first step on the path to defeating us. They could use the debt as puppet string to cause us to move how they want.

And lighten up Francis - pointing out that the US is good at propaganda (duh) does not make one a "hippie". Do you really think the US isn't good a propaganda, or do you have a quota of people you need to call "hippies" every day? Or do you just think anyone to the left of Glenn Beck is an "ultra-liberal"?

Hippies are notorious enemy sympathizers. I'm too lazy to google a huge list of well known hippy enemy sympathizers for you, especially hippies from the Cold War era. The word "hippy" is shorter and easier to write out than "enemy sympathizer". Honestly, I just don't like liberals, period. Those of you that attempt to garner sympathy and empathy from me to share with my enemies, well, you are my enemies as well.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[maxume]

China is buying U.S. debt so that U.S. consumption can fuel their economic growth, placating the populace.

Deeper analysis than that is delusional. If China tries too hard to call in their trillion dollar marker, it won't be worth a trillion dollars anymore, so it really isn't as big a risk as you paint.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[ground.zero.612]

Yes, let's call a spade a spade. China, one of the worst human rights violators on Earth, if not the worst, is our enemy. Just because we trade with them does not make them our friend, nor our frienemy.

In terms of human rights violations, are we that much better when we fund the horrible working conditions to get our electronics at a cheap price?

"We" do not. Corporations do. Corporations only exist to convert resources into profits. Corporations do not care about such petty things like "human rights". Do not confuse human beings with corporations in the future.

And mods - with all the wonderful, colorful buzzwords up there, how has the parent avoided a troll modifier?

Help! Someone with mod points help me please! Won't you please mod the people that disagree with me down? That will teach them good. And mods - with all the wonderful, colorful buzzwords up there, how has the parent avoided a troll modifier?

Ahh requesting that I am modded troll for trying to enlighten the hippies that the world doesn't run on hugs. Hrm.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

filled with hippies like you that think "free love" magically solves all of our problems, and is some kind of fairy dust that you just sprinkle on oppressive totalitarians to infect them with patchouli stink fantasy?

Per slashdot FAQ:

Flamebait -- Flamebait refers to comments whose sole purpose is to insult and enrage. If someone is not-so-subtly picking a fight (racial insults are a dead giveaway), it's Flamebait.

Troll might not have been right, but flamebait sure is.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Paracelcus]

And we still think of these commie rats as allies so as not to interfere with our ability to borrow the money we paid them for cheap sneakers and poisonous dog food.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[countertrolling]

...China, one of the worst human rights violators on Earth...

... with a prison population second to one...

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

How is it delusional? Do you think the Chinese government are idiots?

A clever person will think deeply about how he can leverage his current situation and better himself. That is why, when you have a situation with clever people on at least one side of the fence, you have to factor in "deep thinking". Only when none of the main parties can be called particularly clever can you stop your analysis early. The Chinese government are most certainly not idiots.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[maxume]

I think that the Chinese government doesn't see the U.S. as being particularly high up on their list of problems.

We present some competition for resources, but they are thinking about that in terms of simply having enough for their people, not in terms of beating us (and the only resource we really have a lot more of than they do is clean freshwater, something that is going to be a little bit difficult to just take away).

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[jgtg32a]

People have friends; countries, companies, and cats have interests.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[jgtg32a]

Why do people think that China can just call in their loan?Most of that money is in treasury bonds, and they've also sold off a lot of it and now we are "owned" by the Japanese again.
 
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100217/BUSINESS/702179898/1005

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know China attacked or occupied US! What is the connection between their human rights violations and them being our enemy? It's not like we never had human rights violators as good friends?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[__aaxtnf2500]

That line of thinking is informed purely by ignorance of Chinese defense planning and funding. How do you explain billions of Chinese weapons R&D on projects designed specifically to defeat combat platforms that only the US deploys?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[maxume]

I was alluding to the fact that it is mostly treasuries when I said it wouldn't be worth a trillion dollars anymore; they can certainly choose to start selling the treasuries on the open market, but if they do it hard and fast, they will obliterate the value in the process.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[__aaxtnf2500]

What you think the law is and what the White House/CIA/NSA think the law is are two very different things. To wit: Blackwater's globe-hopping wet-work squad doing dry-runs over the past few years. That was a real-life BLACKBRIAR just waiting for the go-ahead to kill or capture HVT's anywhere, anytime. Reflect on the history of USG covert ops, and you have got to come to the conclusion that at any given time, the USG is involved in a handful of projects that will lead to future embarassment, scandal, shock, or lawsuits.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[thorndt]

Taiwan. The Chinese Government wants enough capabilities to hold us back over anything they do against Taiwan.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[c 0xFF]

News flash: it's not just the government that's worried! In fact most of the attacks are on corporations as part of state-supported industrial espionage.

This isn't US propaganda, so put away that foil hat.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[__aaxtnf2500]

Agreed, and not just Taiwan.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[interval1066]

Your thinking is lacking.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[ushering05401]

According to their own numbers they are more on par with Canada than the U.S. re per capita incarceration.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[slick7]

China is buying U.S. debt so that U.S. consumption can fuel their economic growth, placating the populace.

And as soon as the Chinese put the squeeze on us, we bail on the loans just like we did when Japan bought our debt. Will they ever learn?
The way the Japanese got back at us stemmed from the fact that they increased quality above and beyond our own capabilities. Fat chance if China can think they could do the same. The mind set is beyond their ken. It will take at least a decade to even get on the same chapter let alone the same page.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[slick7]

Chinese people want a good life, just like everyone else. China, the government is a friggen evil empire.

Let's give them some union organizers, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I'm thinking.
Where's your friggen evil empire, now?

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[hitmark]

i suspect US may be able to isolate their part of the net from the rest, but to take over the whole thing? fat chance.

end result may well be that each nation runs their own net, with heavy "border checkpoints".

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Lennie]

Always remember, fear is the US-politicians number one and most used method.

Strange enough it's also one of their biggest driving forces, as politicians are also in fear of losing (campaign) money and votes.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Bing Tsher E]

In terms of human rights violations, are we that much better when (jibber jabber snipped)

Uh, yes. We don't have a cordon drawn around the entire Internet to prevent US citizens from reaching a sizeable percentage of the sites on the net that have info our government doesn't like.

We don't use capital punishment as a routine practice for crimes like corruption.

We don't operate a Gulag system filled with political prisoners and dissidents.

The US Army doesn't own a huge network of Commercial Enterprises, no US General is a business tychoon.

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[Bing Tsher E]

Independent Trade Unions would never be allowed in China.

They have, you see, The People's Party to act in their interest. The vanguard of the fight for the rights of the people. *cough*

Re:China’s Cyber Threat Growing

[slick7]

They have, you see, The People's Party to act in their interest. The vanguard of the fight for the rights of the people. *cough*

That's all well and good, however the People's Party doesn't seem to understand a "day's wages for a day's work". Slave labor is slave labor no matter which ideology is attached.
Working the masses literally to death will get you talked about regardless of how big they may be.

How to get us to talk about it....

[LostCluster]

Which way gets more Slashdot buzz?

A: Give a presentation at Black Hat.
B: Schedule a presentation of Black Hat, only to have to pulled and then a release of that fact leads to a discussion of that not-ready-for-Black-Hat topic here on Slashdot.
C: Call CowboyNeal and ask him to post a story.

Re:How to get us to talk about it....

[bannable]

C is the obvious answer here.

they did WHAT?

[v1]

Black Hat conference cancelled one of their talks due to political pressure? Wow. I thought Black Hat was one of those "we don't care who you are, we're going to talk about this" forums?

Usually one would ridicule other conferences with something like "Do you see Black Hat canceling like this? Grow a pair!" But this is just depressing. Guess Black Hat is experiencing some "shrinkage".

Next thing you know they're going to be cowering over trumped up Cease and Desist orders.

Re:they did WHAT?

[gclef]

???

BlackHat caved before and they'll likely cave again (for reference, see the Cisco incident 5 years ago), *but*, the issue in this case isn't BlackHat. It's the company that employs the speaker that's feeling the pressure. BlackHat can't make someone give a talk, and if the company or speaker decides to back out, that's their choice.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Original Replica]

Black Hat, yellow belly. As soon as Black Hat became big enough to have something to lose, it ceased to be the underground anti-authority thing it poses as.

Re:they did WHAT?

[autocracy]

Try DEFCON. DEFCON talks have been cancelled in the past by court orders against the speakers, but I'm not aware of DEFCON ever dropping a talk due to pressure.

Also: lower cost, much of the same material, more material above that, and beer.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

The interesting question will be whether or not the talk pops up at b-sides (created as a venue for giving presentations which are killed by the corporate types). They have a "lightning track" section that would be perfect for this type of situation. You show up and sign up for a time slot. Not published ahead of time. I think the presenter can even request that no recording / streaming happen during his talk to reduce legal issues later.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Hatta]

I don't understand why they announce these things in advance at all. If no one knows what you're going to present, they can't stop you from presenting. Attendees can be assured that even if they don't know what's going to be discussed, it's going to be good.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually "they" kind of bill Black Hat as the "legitimate" side of the conferences going on there that week. That was the feeling I got when I went there a few years ago anyway. Dofcon, on the other hand, tends to be a little more on the shady side. Although since Defcon moved to the Riviera I do recall them asking everyone to take it easy on that venue the first year.

Re:they did WHAT?

[jdgeorge]

RTFA. RTFS, even. Black Hat didn't cancel the talk. The person giving the talk, CTO of Armorize, an application security company with R&D operations in Taiwan, cancelled the talk due to political pressure.

Good grief.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a recipe for getting shot when you return home.

Re:they did WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

5 years ago? No sirree, that was 4 years ago. I remember it well, I remember ripping out the pages from the Black Hat booklets that were distributed to the people there, and the CD's (all 3000 or so) with all the presentations we had to burn again, and remove from the swag bags and put back into the swag bags.

The volunteers at the time were less than pleased.

Re:they did WHAT?

[slick7]

Black Hat conference canceled one of their talks due to political pressure?

Way slow on the uptake. If the coding and algorithms are known The Chinese will want all new coding sans the back-doors I'm sure have been included.

I thought Black Hat was one of those "we don't care who you are, we're going to talk about this"

If asked nicely, I'm sure they will. The only people who could intervene are the US government, for the above stated reason. To *not believe* that pawns and pawnage is in motion is truly myopic.

Sensationalism? I think not

[winkydink]

If the US doesn't start taking the PRC's cyber offensive capabilities seriously, the US is in for a whole world of hurt. Note how, in the article, the author mentions that Titan Rain and Aurora were not viewed as surprising in Asia, but rather more like, 'yeah, yeah, what else is new?' It is widely known in the security industry that China has been pursuing cyber offensive capabilities for quite some time. Why doesn't it get more discussion?

Why post the schedules ahead of time?

[mbourgon]

Just wondering why people put up notices of these types of seminars days or weeks before the conference. Put out information a few hours ahead of time. I don't know how many concurrent seminars there are, but maybe there could be a "you really want to sit in on this" track? It just seems like a lot of these get shot down in advance for no good reason.

Re:Why post the schedules ahead of time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Planning and scheduling.. planning and scheduling.. Have to get as many talks in as you can..

Re:Why post the schedules ahead of time?

[Lord Ender]

They want to sell tickets (which cost $2,000). It's hard to sell a $2,000 ticket to an event when you can't even tell people what that ticket will buy them.

One word: PUSSIES !!

[Anonymous Coward]

PUSSIES !!

Pussies

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought they had a lot more backbone than this.

Re:Pussies

[Anonymous Coward]

Black Hat didnt fold, the speaker pissed himself and went back to Taiwan.

Re:Pussies

[Bing Tsher E]

The Presenter withdrew under pressure.

I suppose the conference organizers could send out men with guns and frog march him up to the lectern. Anything less makes them pussies, eh?

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[Monkeedude1212]

It gets plenty of attention - notice how the US government is pushing for killswitches for their half of the internet?

Oh, Please!

[RobotRunAmok]

I thought Black Hat was one of those "we don't care who you are, we're going to talk about this" forums?

Those types of organizations don't have annual conferences in Las Vegas.

"Black Hat!" I mean, really. Who would you expect to show up at a Las Vegas venue called the "Super-Villain Expo," Lex Luthor, or wannabes in purple-spandex cosplay?

Re:Oh, Please!

[flaming error]

> Who would you expect to show up at a Las Vegas venue called the "Super-Villain Expo," Lex Luthor, or wannabes in purple-spandex cosplay?

Great point - mod parent up.

To answer your question, I think Lex Luthor would show up and sell purple spandex cosplay to wannabes.

Re:Oh, Please!

[Nerdfest]

It's true, I always feel completely out of place there when I wear my evil overlord costume.

Re:Oh, Please!

[Securityemo]

It's meant to be tounge-in-cheek. It's a part of the conference circuit for 'Security Professionals' doing 'Penetration Testing'. Yes. We are all 'Security Professionals' here, never commited what is technically a federal crime in our lives, nossir.

Re:Oh, Please!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's meant to be tounge-in-cheek. It's a part of the conference circuit for 'Security Professionals' doing 'Penetration Testing'. Yes. We are all 'Security Professionals' here, never commited what is technically a federal crime in our lives, nossir.

Still in all honesty "Black Hat" should be called "Grey Hat" (and maybe should have been called this from the beginning), since what goes on there is more like the Grey Hat sort of hacking. Although I suppose most participants like the "bad boy" connotations of current name...

Re:Oh, Please!

[Securityemo]

I'm going to hate myself tomorrow.

*cough*

WHY SO SERIOUS? :D

Seems like the talk evolved into a demonstartion

[zill]

Offensive capability #3: Censoring free speech in foreign nations.

The Politburo must be pleased by this successful demonstration.

Set the story straight

[Anonymous Coward]

The Blackhat conference can't be blamed for the private buisness interests of one of it's presenters being leveraged in the country he bases one of his companies out of. They have no control over this, their only move is to find somebody as knowledgeable about the situation that doesnt have any affiliations that could be leveraged in this way, AND who has the time to pump out a presentation in that limited of a timeframe (since most anybody on this would be at the professional or entrepreneurship level)

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a red herring. The US is not involved in this story, other than the fact that Black Hat takes place there.
Also, in response to another poster, Black Hat did not cancel one of their talks. The presenter did, due to pressure from Taiwan, according to TFA.
It's like people can't read anymore.

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[spinkham]

Because publicly traded companies are reactionary.

Until Google stoop up and admitted to getting owned, businesses would say it was only worthwhile to defend against automated worms and viruses. That targeted attacks can get your company owned is not news to anyone in the security space, but justifying the monitoring and defensive measures to detect and respond to malicious attackers was tough without datapoints showing that attacks like that actually happen.

Unless you're Richard Bejtlich, who wrote the book on that. http://www.taosecurity.com/books.html

Here's a great overview article by him on APT.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/magazinePrintFriendly/0,296905,sid14_gci1516312,00.html

What about Defcon?

[ratnerstar]

The same talk -- or at least a very similar one, by the same people -- is scheduled to be given at Defcon. Anyone know the status of that? I doubt Defcon is very susceptible to outside pressure, but since the speaker does business in Taiwan he may be reluctant to defy them.

Re:What about Defcon?

[city]

Defcon scheduler - "Alright, next up, speaker on the Chinese cyber-army. Any ideas anyone? You in the hood?"
Cloaked figure - "The Chinese are not the cyber-army you are looking for." waves hand
Defcon - "Great meeting everyone."

Re:What about Defcon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Different talk, same company. Still scheduled.

Dual Core CTO

[Anonymous Coward]

Caleb Sima, Armorize's CTO
Wayne Huang, CTO of Armorize

How many CTOs does one company need?

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[Anonymous Coward]

Because since companies tell their competition "I've been owned", only a couple organizations (that had a capability to do anything about it) had a decent picture.
One of those is the US Gov't.
Since they knew companies were unlikely to help themselves, they came/are coming up with proposals to protect infrastructure
And then when these ideas are floated around Slashdot, they get blasted like clay pigeon at a skeet range because "big brother wants my admin passwords" and other assorted reasons.

No one wants to be owned, but it appears they want help from the government even less.

(I won't make a judgement on which option is the lesser evil, the rest of you can argue about that)

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[winkydink]

The US needs a strong cyber offensive capability. Unplugging the internet doesn't qualify.

Quit posting agendas...

[Anonymous Coward]

Or the only thing left at Defcon will be lame talks on how to replace the password files on unencrypted disk drives or hack your neighbors wifi.

You CAN just promise there will be some awesome talks that you will happily want to shell out $140 cash to attend. Let it be a surprise.

This policy should apply to anything related to speakers from censorship heavy governments or any speaker from a major corporation (cisco, juniper, microsoft..etc)

I hope this years badges are not crappy last-second disappointments accompanied by endless lines. Stay out of the pools.

Politics.

[MaWeiTao]

The reasons why China wouldn't want this guy to speak are clear. It wouldn't be an issue for Taiwan except that current Taiwanese administration has been expanding ties with China at a fairly rapid pace. I'm sure they wanted to avoid ruffling feathers in China. We all know how ridiculous China is with any negative press, how they have to make a big show of dissatisfaction over every little thing. The Chinese leadership soils itself whenever some Taiwanese official travels to Japan or the States. So the Taiwanese, particularly those in the KMT party, are working pretty hard to keep China happy. There have been claims of censorship in Taiwan the Taiwanese media for this same reason.

There's some strong opposition in Taiwan to these expanding ties, but my impression is that people there aren't all that troubled by this. They're far more concerned in the almighty dollar than they are principles.

Pussies

[jrbirdman]

'nuf said.

why is anyone surprised?

[tommyatomic]

When you do a billing and explain exactly what sensitive information you are going to be talking about far in advance of the event. How is anyone surprised when the people to whom are actually sensitive to that information object. If your going to drop an informational bombshell it needs to be a surprise.

If your not dropping an informational bombshell then likely you are just trying to get attention and wasting everyones time.

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[winkydink]

Very nice article, thanks. If you have access, the 451 Group did a great report on APT's a while back too.

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[Monkeedude1212]

Okay. Why does the US need a strong cyber offensive capability?

That is incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

It is against the entire west. That includes all of EU. EU simply keeps quiet about it, but they know that they are under constant attack.

Occupying invasion force in TW

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because the (illegal) occupying KMT administration in TW has PRC cock stuck so high up their asses, their saliva are nothing but PRC cums.

Black hat is turning pink...

[countertrolling]

We need a blacker black.. The whole world is wimping out for the love of money.

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[jgtg32a]

C4, JDAM, ASAT
 
Bye Bye internet

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[jgtg32a]

Yeah I just got back from lunch and I can't read yet

One China!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

All your internet, are belong to us!

GG

kennedy fucker chicken

[Mana Mana]

(Obvious (missing!)) keyword: kowtow

Re:Sensationalism? I think not

[Anonymous Coward]

What makes you think the US government would tell you if they had taken steps to develop strong cyber defense or offense capabilities?