(Guardian) 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.
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.
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