Joining Mikko in Protest, I've Cancelled My Talk at RSA

Granted, I'm no Mikko Hyponnen and my talk was a mere 20 minutes on the last day of the RSA conference, but I think it's vitally important that those of us who profoundly object to RSA's $10 million secret contract with the NSA do more than just tweet our outrage. We need to take action.

RSA has issued the weakest of denials possible on Dec 22nd and hasn't made any attempt to clarify its position since. The company's denial failed to address most of the troubling points raised in Joe Menn's article for Reuters. This on top of RSA's horrible handling of its 2011 SecureID breach has shattered any remaining trust in the company as far as I'm concerned.

Obviously, I hope that RSA and EMC's leadership will eventually rise to the occasion and be fully transparent about what happened and why. However unless and until RSA fully addresses this apparent breach of trust, I won't be speaking at any RSA events nor will I accept RSA as a sponsor at any future Suits and Spooks events.

UPDATE (Jan 3, 2014): I just learned that Josh Thomas of Atredis also pulled his talk from RSA back on December 26th. That makes three of us as of today.

UPDATE (Jan 7, 2014): Christopher Soghoian announced that he has canceled his RSA talk and Adam Langley announced that he's withdrawing from his panel.

Related

NSA's $10M RSA Contract: Origins
An Open Letter to the Chiefs of RSA and EMC by Mikko Hyponnen
Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer by Joseph Menn

RSA Response to Media Claims Regarding NSA Relationship

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