"Foreigner" cans RSA speech over NSA collusion claims

A representative of a Finnish security vendor has pulled out of speaking at next year's RSA Conference following allegations that RSA worked with the US' National Security Agency (NSA) to weaken security standards.

In an open letter to the chiefs of RSA and parent company EMC, F-Secure's chief research officer Mikko Hyppenon confirmed he is cancelling his talk at the popular San Francisco event, which will take place at the end of February 2014.

At issue is a Reuters article from last week alleging that RSA accepted a random number generator from the NSA and set it as the default option in one of its products, in exchange for $10m.

Although RSA yesterday responded with a blog on the topic, Hyppenon claimed its rebuttal lacked an overt denial on the central allegation in the story, something other onlookers - including independent security consultant Graham Cluley - have also noted.

"As my reaction to this, I'm cancelling my talk at the RSA Conference USA 2014 in San Francisco in February 2014," wrote Hyppenon, who has spoken no fewer than eight times at either RSA Conference USA, RSA Conference Europe or RSA Conference Japan.

"Aptly enough, the talk I won't be delivering at RSA 2014 was titled ‘Governments as Malware Authors'."

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http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2320579/-foreigner-cans-rsa-speech-over-nsa-collusion-claims