DEF CON China Conference Put on Hold Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

The organizers of the DEF CON cyber-security conference have announced today that they are putting this year's China edition "on hold" due to the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. From a report: "China has announced a six-month hold on events like ours as part of the effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak," the DEF CON team said in a forum post today. DEF CON is one of the Top 3 most prestigious cyber-security conferences today. The conference is held each year in Las Vegas, in the month of August. The Chinese edition of the DEF CON conference, which would have reached its second edition this year, was set to take place in Beijing between April 17 and April 19. Organizers said they are currently putting the DEF CON China 2.0 conference on hold, but have not officially canceled the event.

pwned by nature

[awwshit]

def con china pwned by nature

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[Crosshair84]

Assuming it's a bio-weapon: They are finding out what most countries figured out long ago, Bioweapons are more trouble than they are worth. Same reason chemical weapons largly went out of style. They're just too unpredictable. NOBODY wants a weapon they can't control. Pretty much the only reason to continue research is to learn how to fight them.

You can see this with nukes. Note how the USSR never gave China help with nuclear weapons. China never gave North Vietnam nuclear weapons. Why? Because they coul

Wired Future of the Future in mid-90's...

[garyisabusyguy]

had a story regarding the spread of a killer flu out of Asia.

One element of the story was that it was spread via a CDC conference and as a result wiped out most of the virologists on the planet.

The "interview" from 2025 perspective, focused on how they had lost a generation of expertise and had to re-build it from (nearly) scratch

Maybe the Chinese are paying attention

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[mi]

spread via a CDC conference and as a result wiped out most of the virologists on the planet.

Something like this happened in 2014, when Russians shot down the Malaysian Boeing [bbc.com], killing the scores of top AIDS-researchers [time.com] on their way to a conference...

Maybe the Chinese are paying attention

Going into a totalitarian country to discuss computer security is soo blatantly bizarre, it seems like no one other than China are paying attention...

News Alert: DEFCON China postponed

[Minupla]

Didn't I see this in plauge inc? :)

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[garyisabusyguy]

Time to move to Madagascar

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[account_deleted]

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[garyisabusyguy]

If you have every played the PLAGUE game, you realize that Madgascar is usually the last land mass to fall

OMG

[nospam007]

The worlds worst pandemics:

3. 1918 Influenza
2. Bird flu
1. Men Influenza

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[gtall]

Okay, who let Fox News on this site?

Re: Virus is from China's Bioweapons Lab

[CaffeinatedBacon]

I think you solved it.
There's no way for an airborne virus to get past your chain-link fence...

Why are they holding a conference in China?

[engineer37]

It seems like an incredibly bad idea to give one of our major adversaries a ton of advanced knowledge and access to skilled researchers in the field of hacking. China has been hacking the US and other countries for years, but we're just going to give them talent and research?

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[retchdog]

What do you mean, "our"? def con is not affiliated with the US government. (or at least not in an ongoing formal capacity...)

Commies

[slickwillie]

In Soviet Russia DEFCON puts a hold on you.