Privacy rights groups are calling on comedian Stephen Colbert to cancel his guest speaker appearance at a conference organised by RSA, the security firm accused of accepting millions from the National Security Agency to weaken encryption software.
The host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report is due to be the closing speaker at RSA’s Annual Conference in San Francisco in February. A number of security experts scheduled to speak at the conference have already dropped out following reports that RSA was paid $10m by the NSA to distribute a flawed encryption that allowed the security agency to bypass security protections on personal computers and other products.
The Guardian reported last September that the NSA was using a battery of methods to undermine encryption, the codes used to keep users’ data private online. Last month Reuters revealed that RSA was paid $10m by the NSA to incorporate a weakened algorithm into an encryption product called BSafe that would allow the spy agency easier access to protected information.
What do you think Hubsters? Should Stephen cancel his appearance? Call out the RSA’s wrong doings to their faces? Or perhaps something else. What do you think Stephen has up his sleeve?
RSA has been one of the most respected names in online security. It is now part of EMC, one of the world’s largest data storage and cloud computing companies. The payment for the adoption of a flawed system by a company with a long history of championing online privacy caused widespread anger in the tech community.
The company has vehemently denied that it knowingly undermined its own encryption. “Recent press coverage has asserted that RSA entered into a ‘secret contract’ with the NSA to incorporate a known flawed random number generator into its BSafe encryption libraries. We categorically deny this allegation,” it said in a statement last month.
Digital rights group Fight For The Future has now set up an online petition asking Colbert to withdraw from the conference. “Last month, we learned that RSA accepted $10m from the NSA to stick a backdoor in one of their encryption products, and intentionally weaken the safety of the entire internet.
“We know you, Stephen, and we know you love a good backdoor as much as we do – but this is no laughing matter. By colluding with the NSA and covering it up, RSA has endangered all of us,” says the petition.
Full Article: The Guardian.
Fight for the Future wants Colbert, star of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” and perhaps the best-known speaker at the high-profile industry event, to join the boycott.
“What we are hoping is that he’ll understand that a line has been drawn here, and he should cancel his appearance,” said Holmes Wilson, cofounder of Fight for the Future. “He can do much more good by lending his voice to the boycott.”
Colbert representatives could not be reached for comment.
Full Article: The Boston Globe.
Stephen Colbert Urged to Cancel RSA Conference Speech
What do you think Hubsters? Should Stephen cancel his appearance? Call out the RSA’s wrong doings to their faces? Or perhaps something else. What do you think Stephen has up his sleeve?