One of the world's largest conferences for computer security professionals took place last week in San Francisco, the RSA Conference. And it was held under the shadow of Edward Snowden's revelations of NSA spying. Emotions about the scandal were running high at this conference in particular. The computer security professionals that attend are the people trying to keep their companies safe from prying eyes. And the company for which the show is named, RSA, was found to be working with the NSA. RSA is a security unit owned by EMC that makes encryption technology, the kind of tech that is supposed to make your computer safe from hackers and spies. The NSA paid RSA $10 million to influence the default method of encryption used in a popular RSA product, documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed. The implication is that the NSA could break into computers and read documents, even if the data was encrypted. During his keynote speech, RSAs executive chairman, Arthur Coviello Jr., went off-script to address the allegations, The Times' Nicole Perlroth reports. He said: <\/p>\n
Has RSA done work with the N.S.A.? Yes. But the fact has been a matter of public record for nearly a decade.\" <\/p>\n
There are many of us at AT&T who are disturbed by what weve been hearing about the N.S.A., this person said. But when you see that, he said, pointing to the T-shirts, a conversation becomes impossible. <\/p>\n
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