Microsoft stands by its invite to arrested hacker

The point is to challenge Blue Hat attendees, not coddle them

November 09, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Microsoft's security team took a bit of a chance a few weeks ago, when it invited Roberto Preatoni to give a talk at its Redmond campus.

Preatoni is the founder of Wabisabilabi, a Switzerland-based company that bills itself as an auction site for the software bugs that companies like Microsoft never want anybody to see. He spoke at Microsoft in late September as an invited guest at Microsoft's semi-annual Blue Hat security conference.

But what had been an edgy invite by Microsoft's Blue Hat planners took on a new dimension this week, when Preatoni was arrested in Milan on charges relating to a national spying scandal at Telecom Italia, Italy's largest telephone carrier.

So was it a miscalculation to invite him to Blue Hat? Not at all, said George Stathakopoulos, general manager of Microsoft?????????s Response and Product Centers