Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • April 16, 2025 12:40 PM

@ Bruce,

With regards,

“… as the US Department of Homeland Security failed to renew the contact.”

Whilst technically true, the reality is some sad sack bag of old post digestive eruptions, just stuck a pin in a list of,

“Funding to cut to crow about to those who have less comprehension than he.”

And withdrew the funding thus giving the DHS no real choice (even though those in charge there may have foolishly thought it was a good idea).

Unfortunately for the miasma of post digestive eruptions it got serious kick back and some other suspiciously timed news items turned up the heat to near the flash point.

So as noted, and perhaps unsurprisingly,

“It was funded for eleven more months at the last minute.”

After all we can not have the Donald looking like a bad roast duck, “Peking” or otherwise.

But,

“My guess is that we will somehow figure out how to continue this program without the US government.”

I’m not sure if that is entirely a good idea.

Lets say it’s academic rather than corporate interests that continue it…

The recent Executive attacks on US Universities indicates an all to likely “arms length” way for the Executive to kill things off. We’ve already seen this with certain subjects where certain people who are most definitely NOT US Citizens and do not want “Freedom of Speach” etc getting in the way of their “alternative truth” “propaganda machines”.

Likewise with Corporates, but they are likely to “fold more quickly” in most cases.

Clive Robinson • April 17, 2025 10:16 AM

@ ResearcherZero,

With regards,

“As these people are poorly informed, many do not realize that it already happened. Perhaps it may explain though why many of them are rather unhappy and looking for someone to blame.”

Or chemicals to “take their mind off” or “obliterate the mental pain”

These problems started getting really noticeable back in the 1990’s as the fall out of “freemarket” nonsense of “Mad Maggie Thatcher” UK PM and “Ronnie the ray gun” US President “love-in” of the “Big 80’s”

It effectively ended the “progressive progress” that had been the US Way since the 1930’s that had brought jobs and personal wealth to individuals and lifted them from dirt poor “share-cropper” serfdom to middle-class life styles.

Ronnie was followed by Georg H W and they set forth what some called Conservative ideals of Corporatism and Globalism where wealth was legally forced to go only one way, which was up into just one or two pockets and the social divide became a gaping chasm. Workers were systematically robbed of all rights and changes in the legal system put redress beyond all but a few.

The education system also became changed and children were actually indoctrinated to believe the Conservative Nonsense that the “self entitled” spouted to keep the reality of their actions from their door.

Such mental deficit from indoctrinated cognitive bias does cause mental schism, that whilst not recognised as schizophrenia can cause sufficient mental anguish and pain that substance abuse via alcohol and tobacco start. The results are the epidemic of obesity and unfitness that causes work injuries. As I’ve mentioned vefore the US Health Insurance scam is about two things, making obscene profits and pushing obscenely priced pills so big phama profits. So when a person comes in with a work related strain or injury all that is allowed is a quick patch-up and repeat handfuls of pills that quickly become ever stronger “pain-relief” not the rest and physio that’s actually needed. At some point the pain relief vecomes a “Central Nervous System”(CNS) depresent, which stops “pain felt in the brain” thus gets rid all be it briefly of the schism based mental pain. At which point a sizable number of people become addicts to prescription tabs. Hence the US has one of the highest if not the highest death rate in the world by prescription substance abuse.

As basic economics tells you markets are formed by demand and the price by supply. The only way to kill a market for a given good is to remove the demand. Thus the “tariffs” are never ever going to solve the demand issue, in fact it will make it worse and way more profitable for a select few.

What however tariffs do do is bring in tax to put in certain “self entitled peoples” pockets and control stock market instability such that ordinary peoples savings for acquiring a home, Higher Education for their children, and a pension for old age are in effect stolen and by the market manipulation end up in certain very favoured pockets with spare change for very unhealthy Mar-a-Lago Dinners at a $million a head and 1/4million for a World Economic Forum membership for Davos meet ups.

Clive Robinson • April 18, 2025 5:11 AM

@ ResearcherZero,

Think small profit fast

It’s not just “thinking small” that creates NIMBYism…

The basic model of price by “supply and demand” says if you have a “good” you can artificially increase it’s value by curtailing or significantly reducing supply below demand.

As you can then “borrow” against the good you hold as it’s an “asset” it’s in your financial interest to block all other housing development.

There was a time in the UK and other places where people were daft enough to do “home equity release” by remortgaging over and over then spending the money on cruises and other “no retained value” services.

Thus when interest rates rose, and house value increases stopped dropped they were caught in homes they could not sell, nor afford to pay the interest, let alone the capital of their remortgage.

Others a little wiser remortgaged to by further homes that they then “rented out” using the rent to pay both the interest and the capital and in short order actually getting an “unearned income” to live on for retirment etc as well as have assets to pass on to children etc.

The down side of this more prudent behaviour is that rental costs per month went up way beyond 50% of the earned family income, in effect creating artificial poverty.

This too reduced “national fertility”. It used to be common in the US to have around five children in the early years of marriage. Now not only are people not getting married they are not having children or only one per couple.

The result is the US fertility rate is heading significantly downward… add in the other figures I mentioned earlier for early demise and the words “free-fall” and “tail-spin” become associated. As we know this has “knock on effects” that appear fairly violently when mixed with leader ambitions of certain types of authoritarians.

In the UK the current encumbants appear to think that putting massive tax loading both local and national on people who own more than one home will bring out rainbows and unicorns and all will be right in the world…

It won’t for the simple reason people are living when they can as “official singletons” even though “unofficial couples with children” thus demand for traditional homes is actually “ever higher” especially in certain places[1].

The only solution is to build new and sustainable housing but for the above reasons and one or two other profit reasons it’s not happening[2].

And this has very real security implications.

In part we see a significant rise in faux-investments robbing people of their savings for buying a home, educating their children, and having a modest income in old age. This in turn causes the likes of crime to rise on the “Willie Sutton” principle[3].

But consider the rise in online financial “cyber-crime” and the fall of traditional “street-crime” and burglary etc. Depending on who’s figures you compare it’s been said that ransomware and similar are now up with credit card fraud.

But as in a finished good has a supply chain so does financial crime and faux-profit

The thing is this “faux-profit” works the same way as “taxes” and “tariffs” it ends up in the pockets of a “chosen few” via faux-market rules and regulations…

Thus the people that can least pay, pay the most, and the significant profit goes to the very few that least need it. And thus security becomes an issue

Because the result of this is as I’m sure many have now noticed is increasing “civil disquiet” if not actual unrest. And it’s not going to get any better when those duped by authoritarians realize they have been had/robbed.

[1] I have a friend who works “freelance since lockdown” they “divorced for tax reasons” amicably… So the wife got one house the husband the other, they now have two children –and a third on the way– who officially live in the house closest to the best schools for their age range but the Ex has “visitation rights” so they also live in the other house for part of the time. It’s not illegal to do this it’s just “playing the game the system forces” on people.

[2] When young not only did I get my “electricians tickets” I also taught the subject and still as a favour “coach people”. However I nolonger practice as an electrician primarily because I’m medically “unfit” but also because I would have to pay around £3000 each year to be “registered” with politically enforced trade bodies and local authorities in whose areas I might work. Thus “doing the odd job” as a favour to friends etc as I did long ago would cost me a lot of money. So by supply and demand the price of “trades work” has escalated (but those employed by companies have had their wages held static for over a decade now).

[3] Famously the bank robber Willie Sutton when asked why he did it by an FBI agent allegedly replied,

“Because that’s where the money is.”

This “go where the money is” principle is also known as “Sutton’s Law”. And it’s why cyber criminals do what they do as ransomware etc.

Clive Robinson • April 18, 2025 1:54 PM

@ ALL,

The Musk snout in the trough is worse than a camel’s nose under the tent flap for many in the EU.

It’s not just the flip flopping of is a service going to be there tomorrow, or tarrif nonsense.

What’s making them nervous is Musk’s cavalier attitude to others data and his DOGiE Mutts just copying updating and deleting data they have no lawful reason to be anywhere near let alone playing with.

Oh and one of the DOGiE Mutts being involved rut up past their “dog balls” with attempted access from Russia is really upsetting some.

Thus the recent intrest on “on shoring” data back into Europe.

Europe’s cloud customers eyeing exit from US hyperscalers

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/us_hyperscaler_alternatives/

“[T]he topic dominating conversations at April’s KubeCon EU event was what to do about events unfolding in the US. Even before the recent flip-flopping over tariffs, users were already questioning whether including US-based hyperscalers in their supply chain was necessarily a good thing.”

Many felt not, not even at much much lower cost. As was observed,

“Price is not everything when you need to survive hostile intent.”

As further indicated of the US Corps,

“because these people have a stranglehold on the business critical infrastructure that they [the customers] need in order to be successful.””

But most know the two who are having the finger pointed at them,

“[Nextcloud] CEO Frank Karlitschek attributed this not just to the Trump effect but to the actions of the US administration overall.

There are three factors,” he told The Register. “The first is really the unreliability, because we see what Trump is doing and the danger is that things will be just switched off from one day to another for negotiation purposes. Then we see the whole question around pricing with the tariffs.

And then the other thing is really the espionage factor. This is relatively new and surprising to me … but now you see what Musk is doing, that you can access really confidential databases … I think this is a realistic fear nowadays.”

Hmmm this could put a serious crack not just in the Nine-Eyes but even UKUSA as the Five-Eyes are already cracking up with Canada taking defence against the US in particular. But also Australia and New Zealand being increasingly economically alined with China, for obvious reasons.