US considers not allowing Chinese access to hacker conferences

The US authorities are considering stopping visas for Chinese who want to travel to the US to attend hacker conferences such as Black Hat or Defcon. The US has been arguing with China for some time over mutual hacking attempts.

A government official told Reuters that the US may impose visa restrictions on Chinese people. For example, the government wants to prevent Chinese hackers from visiting American hacker conferences, including Black Hat and Defcon. However, no final decision has yet been made to ban the Chinese.

Jeff Moss, founder of the aforementioned hacker conferences, said that any measures taken by the US government “will not help build a positive community.” In addition, Black Hat employee Chris Wysopal indicated that visa restrictions make little sense; presentations at Black Hat and Def Con are recorded and can therefore also be viewed outside the United States.

The US and China have been arguing over cyber war for quite some time. The countries accuse each other of hacking each other’s computer systems. The US government last week indicted five Chinese military personnel for stealing trade secrets from several major companies, something China denies. It does not seem likely that China will extradite the accused, so the lawsuit is probably mainly intended to exert pressure.