Slashdot Mirror
F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen Cancels RSA Talk In Protest
An anonymous reader writes "In a letter to RSA executives, F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen says he is canceling his talk at the 2014 RSA Conference, due to the company's deal with the NSA, and how the agency has treated foreigners."
From the letter: "
I don’t really expect your multibillion dollar company or your multimillion dollar conference to suffer as a result of your deals with the NSA. In fact, I'm not expecting other conference speakers to cancel. Most of your speakers are american anyway — why would they care about surveillance that’s not targeted at them but at non-americans. Surveillance operations from the U.S. intelligence agencies are targeted at foreigners. However I’m a foreigner. And I’m withdrawing my support from your event."
As an American, I am giving my moral support to Mr. Hyppone for his courage to speak up against the unspeakable and despicable things that NSA has done !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Hypponnen needs better news sources.
As an american, I don't believe for one second that it's not targeted at us, too. Mr. Hypponen has my support, as well.
Let me just say that, by far, most of us Americans *do* care about the surveillance going on in our country. And we're horrified by it.
The bottom line is that the world is no longer confident about software written in the US, and will seek alternatives sourced from Europe, Russia, China and elsewhere to regain the security and privacy which they believe they have lost.
The NSA will be directly responsible for a shift away from US standards, US software and US protocols ... because without confidence, those standards, software and protocols don't mean a damn thing. RSA, by simply going along with the NSA has damaged its brand name, possibly irreparably.
I support anyone that's willing to hit the breaks these days. Without people, nothing can succeed, nothing at all. If the only card we have to play - in this world of bullshit, lies and damn lies - is non-participation, then we have to play it. To keep going on like "everything is just what it is and there's nothing that we can do to change it" is to play into the continuation of the problem. To see others acting upon this truth is heart-warming and gives hope to others that are doing it.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
RSA has categorically denied that they cut a deal with the NSA. But Mr. Hypponen and the rest of the internet has declared them guilty based on unseen evidence. How is that fair?
You can expect that to become a trend. The NSA has well and truly fucked over the entire American IT security industry. Even ultra-low-end "security" products like home broadband routers have become suspect, thanks to their interference.
Fair? No. Obvious consequence of the NSA's actions? Absolutely. People haven't trusted them for decades - Anyone remember Tempest? Or the improved S-Boxes that made DES more resistant to an attack that wouldn't exist for another 25 years? But in the back of our minds, we always told ourselves they might count as completely scary bastards, but at least they counted as our completely scary bastards. Now we know better - They have zero regard for US law and work for no one but themselves.
On a positive note, I'd still rather see the TSA disbanded first. But at this point, they both need to go.
Then again, this just follows a loooong history of ineffective, illegal, self-serving "intelligence" agencies in the US, from Hoover's FBI to Bush-the-elder's CIA to our current situation, you'd think we'd eventually learn and say "no more". Sadly, most people don't even have a clue we have a problem, or worse, outright support giving up our freedoms if it will protect us from the evil brown people across the sea.
Pathetic, the whole lot of us.
You haven't done your research.
It has been known for years that the RSA pushed an unsecure algorithm by default, and suspected it was intended as a backdoor. What wasn't known was their motivation behind it. We recently have been given information that the NSA gave them money in exchange for their service. Sure, you can claim it was all made up, but everything else given to us by Snowdown to date has been accurate. Meanwhile, those that would be negatively impacted by these revelations (such as the NSA, the president, various large tech companies, etc.) have been caught lying non-stop about it. I wouldn't exactly say it is hard to imagine that the RSA is going to claim they weren't involved in an attempt to save themselves.
RSA has categorically denied that they cut a deal with the NSA.
Not quite. They have done no such thing. The RSA has not denied working with the NSA, accepting money, nor weakening encryption. They simply said they did not create a contract with the NSA. It was nothing but deflection using weasel words.
No matter how you want to spin in, the RSA are not the victims here. Citizens across the globe are. That is what is not fair.
Dude... seriously? You think the rule of law is going to have any impact on this situation? Admit it... we are all cowards
A secret court in a "free" country is fucking scary.
I hate to be *that guy*, but everyone needs to understand two significant points:
1. After a couple month of watching the PRISM scandal unforld I now believe this is a "Hiroshima moment". Never before in human history was it possible to spy on everyone. To have a file on everyone. The secret services (the bad as well as the good) always had to focus on a select few. No more. We are living in 1984.
2. I firmly believe the main reason why other spy agencies are not doing what the NSA is doing is because of their limited capabilities. Both in less money and resources, but also in reach. Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are US based. Many important internet exchanges as well. This point is especially important, because of the US tradition of transparency and whistleblowing. As American as the NSA may be, Snowden is even more so. I can't imagine a Chinese Snowden. And even if he existed, would they have a broad discussion on that subject in China? How about Russia? Or even the UK? GHCQ has been as bad as the NSA, yet do we see a broad and honest discussion about it in London?
I hate the constant and ubiquitous surveillance, but the technology advances were the ones that brought them here. The NSA were only the first and foremost ones that took advantage of the new tools. They become cheap fast. Soon every spy agency will have them. This is a very useful and helpful discussion we are having right now. Because we either need to encrypt everything and move everyone onto Tor, or get used to having a file on everyone. There is no "gentlemen's agreement" (no-spy-agreement, UN accord, whatever), because there is no way to enforce it.