http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2014/01/nist-paid-16500-space-now-boycotted-rsa-conference/76421/
By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov.com
Jan. 8, 2014
The National Institute of Standards and Technology purchased a $16,500
booth at an RSA event that technologists are pulling out of in protest of
the encryption company’s alleged deal with the National Security Agency to
weaken products using a NIST-approved trapdoor.
NIST’s entire leadership and management team attended last year's
conference, according to 2013 contracting documents. They "cultivated key
relationships with peer-to-peer executives at companies and government
agencies," the documents state. "Our attendance at RSA offered our
leadership team to speak on panels that reinforced NIST's position as a
technical thought leader and policy advisor."
As of Tuesday night, at least eight speakers and attendees had cancelled
appearances at next month’s event after Reuters first reported that RSA
accepted $10 million to make the "Dual Elliptic Curve" the default setting
for generating random numbers in a popular encryption product. The report,
based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said
NSA promoted and promulgated a flawed formula for creating the numbers,
giving the agency a back door to spy on users. RSA denied designing or
enabling back doors into any of its products.
NIST bought the exhibitor space last spring from event planning company
Nth Degree to use for four days at the annual conference in San Francisco,
the documents state.
[...]
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