Cisco: In 2005, the company's reputation suffered after it threatened to sue the BlackHat security conference and a researcher for a presentation discussing flaws in the company's Internet router software. The researcher had discovered that the flaw could potentially be exploited by hackers to seize control of a router and monitor, intercept, delete, or misdirect communications. Although the conference and researcher ignored the legal threats and the presentation went on as planned, Cisco's reputation in the technology world was heavily tarnished for trying to silence information about security threats.