Schneier on Security

thecoldspy • November 19, 2010 11:02 PM

@bahggy

I think any time Bruce talks, people listen. And even if he is in a room with idiots, people outside of that realm are listening. I am sure that some of them even hang onto each and every word looking for nuggets of intelligence they can use later on. What I am saying is this: it doesn’t matter who Bruce speaks to or whether they look or act disinterested, people listen even if those he speaks to don’t. Of course that is only my opinion.

@Eric S

He already talked about why he felt defeated. I think it had something to do with his debating skill set. I can tell you this, he was up against a groupthink that states we are at war, and it might as well be a cyberwar. We are always at war with Eastasia according to Orwell. And this cyberwar is no different than any other war. The only difference is the battlefield conditions.

Bruce is actually right. This is not a real war in the sense of needing to run and hide or else. This is a war for money and big contracts. This chaos that is happening on the net is the excuse that is laid at the feet of those who have to be sold on it as a requirement for our safety in order to support it.

There is also a huge amount of propaganda being sold to the masses that says that at any moment the lights will go out, or the nuclear installations will be attacked, or other governments (always Chinese or Russian or the ambiguous Easter Europeans) will attack us if we don’t ratchet up the security, or if we don’t pay more to the government or the security apparatus or give more to the National Security State to protect us.

Everyone in the business is getting bloody rich off of this fear, and it seems no one wishes it to end, for if they did wish it to end, they would more than likely be signing their own pink slips. And much like the war on terror, and the war on drugs, and the war on the citizens at the airport, money is required to support it, and fear is sold as a way to get that money. Fear the lights will go out. Fear the nukes will suddenly go boom. Fear the power grids, the air traffic control systems, the nuke installations, the water, the food, the stores, the…..

Anyone that lives in such an oppressive and fearful country will give in to this fear mongering eventually, and will ultimately beg for others (government, security etc) to remove this fear. I don’t wish to quote Trotsky, but as was once said:

“The revolution kills individuals and intimidates thousands. … At the appropriate time, the terrorist offers, and the victim accepts, a Faustian bargain. To obtain relief from the tension of daily life in an atmosphere of constant and apparently random violence, the victim surrenders his birthright of freedom in exchange for peace—literally at any price. And the strategist who makes stability his goal hands a perfect methodology to his tormentor, who merely has to disturb stability. Each bombing, assassination, or kidnapping throws the stability seeker off balance/ Two steps forward one step back-and the stability-seeker plays the tune for this deadly dance.”

Are we not at that point already in this trumped up cyberwar? I think so.