“[Apple] Marketing got wind of it, and nobody at Apple is ever allowed to speak publicly about anything without marketing approval,” said Black Hat Conference Director, Jeff Moss.
“It was them talking about security engineering and how they take security seriously,” Moss said. “It would have put Apple in a positive light.”
The team was not planning to take any questions. Even so, they would have been speaking on behalf of Apple, and only certain blessed individuals at Apple who are “press trained” can do that, notably Steve Jobs, certain VPs like Phil Schiller, Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer, product managers, and members of the Marketing Communications team.
Mr. Moss received the cancelation notice e-mail on Friday, but declined to provide the names of those scheduled to appear in order to protect their jobs.
The annual Black Hat Conference is increasingly popular and growing every year. In Neal Krawetzis August 3 blog, he explained that the attendees are really good guys: “Although the name says iBlack Hati, the presenters are far from it. The conference really has two types of talks: (1) good guys telling good guys what the bad guys already know, and (2) good guys telling good guys something that they need to know.”
Mr. Moss said that Apple is welcome back at the show if the company changes its mind. Amongst the sponsors of Blackhat for 2008 are Microsoft, Nokia and Google.