US to block Chinese from conferences

US authorities are set to use visa restrictions to prevent Chinese nationals from attending major US hacking conferences DefCon and Black Hat in Las Vegas this August.

The rumoured move comes after the United States justice department indicted five Chinese military officers for allegedly being part of a unit devoted to hacking into American companies in order to swipe high-level data for commercial benefit.

Dermot Williams, managing director of security company Threatscape said "there's no doubt the US government has considerably stepped up the rhetoric in the last few weeks" in relation to the Chinese hacking threat.

The move to restrict visas was first reported by Reuters who claimed it was due to the failure of dialogue over hacking issues with Chinese officials.

In an email to The Irish Times, a Black Hat representative said while the organisation had not been contacted by any "government agency" on the matter, they "strongly believe in engaging with and fostering collaboration among the international information security community".

DefCon, being more “underground, hobbyist and irreverent” according to Williams, is even less likely to approve of such a move.

Organiser of last year's Irisscert Cyber Crime Conference in Dublin, Brian Honan called the rumoured US move "short-sighted".