https://www.csoonline.com/article/3444596/speaker-disinvites-at-cybercon-spark-controversy.html
By J.M. Porup
Senior Writer
CSO
October 7, 2019
Controversy has erupted at CyberCon, Australia's largest cybersecurity
conference, as two well-known cybersecurity experts have been disinvited from
speaking with only a week's notice. The event organizer has said in an email to
one of the speakers that they did so at the request of a partner.
That raises questions about whether the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD),
that country's counterpart to the NSA, pressured the conference to silence
critical voices. The ASD and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), part
of the ASD, are partners of the show organizer, the Australian Information
Security Association (AISA). CyberCon opened October 7, in Melbourne,
Australia.
NSA whistleblower Drake one of the speakers
One of the speakers is Thomas Drake, the NSA whistleblower whose ultimate
firing contributed to Edward Snowden's decision to leak classified information
about mass surveillance programs to journalists. He was set to speak on the
national security state, encryption, and other topics. The other speaker, Dr.
Suelette Dreyfus, a professor at the University of Melbourne, was due to
deliver a talk on secure and anonymous digital drop boxes as an anti-corruption
tool.
"I was invited as a speaker 11 months ago, and reconfirmed over the intervening
time," Dr. Dreyfus tells CSO. " About a week before the event I was told I was
disinvited as a speaker."
[...]
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