When you pay good money to go to a conference, you expect a good keynote speaker (or speakers) who have experience relevant to the major topic at hand. Which makes the announcement of the keynote for the upcoming Cyber Defense Summit put on by FireEye Inc. all the more baffling.
Look, this shouldn’t even be a partisan issue. Mrs. Clinton is as qualified to speak about Cyber Security as Charlie Sheen is to give a keynote speech at an AA convention, or Elizabeth “Theranos” Holmes to keynote at a respected medical conference.
I mean, the only way this could possibly work would be if Mrs. Clinton got up on stage and said something like “Cyber Security is important. Look how badly I got screwed because I didn’t know jack shit about it. Don’t be like me.” And then everyone got fifty-five minutes of their lives back to go do something else. Call it a hunch, but that’s not how this is going to go down.
I do note, that since this story broke last Thursday, FireEye has removed the keynote speakers from the rotating titlecard on the home page for the event. However, the Keynote page still proudly lists Mrs. Clinton, along with the FireEye CEO, as the keynote speakers.
Mrs. Clinton’s bio page even goes into more details about her “accomplishments” the highlights of which are, um… being married to Bill Clinton, being the Junior Senator from New York (something Elizabeth Warren had some significant criticisms of), travelling to a lot of countries as Secretary of State, and writing five books. All of which has dick all to do with cybersecurity. I do find it amusing that “Failed Democrat Presidential Candidate” didn’t make the list.
I think if I had registered for this conference, I’d want my money back, right now.