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Less Than Half Of IT Pros At RSA Conference Say NSA Went Too Far

RSA CONFERENCE 2014 – San Francisco – One in five IT professionals who attended the RSA Conference here this week say they would hire Edward Snowden, but less than half of them are convinced the NSA overstepped its bounds in domestic spying programs.

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The NSA and Snowden loomed large here this week, both in conference sessions and exhibit-floor conversations. A rival conference organized by privacy advocates upset over allegations that RSA Security had entered into a private pact with the NSA to use weak encryption technology in its products ran next door to the RSA Conference yesterday. A handful of speakers withdrew their talks from the conference in protest, but that didn’t seem to affect attendance of RSA, which was around 25,000 people.

Thycotic Software conducted an anonymous survey of IT pros here, and some 48 percent said the NSA had overreached in its programs that were exposed in the Snowden document leaks. Some 52 percent say the NSA did not overstep, and of those, 21 percent say the government needs to gather data on citizens’ communications in order to prevent terrorist acts, while 31 percent say they are torn with the issue and worry about privacy.

Three-quarters of the respondents say those who boycotted the conference have a right to do so; 17 percent say those who boycotted were grandstanding; and 9 percent say they considered boycotting the conference as well.

Around 24 percent say employees have abused privileged access credentials, and 37 percent say it’s likely that their users have done so. Around 20 percent say those credentials are not abused in the organization. Meanwhile, 19 percent say they would hire Edward Snowden if they had the opportunity.

“Regardless of where you stand on the issue, the attention around Edward Snowden’s alleged disclosures last year has raised major concerns worldwide around the risk posed by insiders who have access to privileged account passwords,” said Jonathan Cogley, founder and CEO of Thycotic Software.

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Article source: http://www.darkreading.com/privacy/less-than-half-of-it-pros-at-rsa-confere/240166418

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