Dumb and Dumber at RSA

Never in my long history of dealing with mega-moguls the likes of Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff have I heard of anyone say something as quite as stupid as RSA's chairman Art Coviello (read The Register's littany of Coviello's stupidity here). One exceptionally blithering statement stands out. I unknowingly rebutted it in my analysis yesterday (read it here), before I saw the The Register story last night:

First, [Coviello] said, governments around the world need to renounce the use of offensive cyberweapons, and through treaties and mutual agreements make them as forbidden as nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.

Whoever is giving the RSA chairman PR advice should probably reevaluate his career choice. Break up the NSA to make sure we play defense only? Treat cyberweapons the same as nuclear weapons? The Register reports that "…Coviello has come out fighting over claims that his firm is colluding with the NSA…" The characterization of his tactic as "fighting" is generous. The word "braying" is more appropriate. I leave it up to the reader to complete the metaphor.