Schneier on Security

Zero Day Specialist • March 19, 2015 5:42 AM

@Humanware Zero Day

Okay, humanware zero day, what is the corollary: I find this as odd statement. Software has errors because they people who write them are full of errors. People are constantly full of erroneous beliefs and yet learn to operate as if those beliefs are true. It is a deep delusional state, really, and effects everyone, high and low.

Do their many delusions have “security” ramifications? Of course. In fact, many of their delusions they keep because they like to feel secure. They shun self-criticality and group criticality, even critical thought to feel secure. Yet, that security, of course, is as much an illusion as their deep set beliefs are delusions.

Does this cause problems for them? Obviously. It has extreme ramifications for their own personal happiness and their very life. Sooner or later their delusions hit against reality, and they find complete loss. They ‘gained the world, but lost their soul’.

While they ‘have the world’, they believe they are ‘someone’, but they are not. When they discover that was a lie, they lose not only ‘the world’ but also their entire sense of being. If that is not a critical security vulnerability, I do not know what is.

Zero Day Specialist • March 19, 2015 4:46 PM

@Interesting @Clive Robinson

Hi now this reading was a new one, its rather intresting to read since if any truth at all in it the whole ISIS thing becomes even more complicated http://en.delfi.lt/central-eastern-europe/putins-russia-do-traces-of-kgb-fsb-and-gru-lead-to-islamic-state.d?id=66856642

In the Middle East today, Russia is serving US interests effectively. They are doing this by siding with their economic partner, Iran. The US is incapable of siding with both Shia and Sunni in the efforts against ISIS largely because of deep Sunni and Israeli ties. However, the US needs Lebanon to be stable, and they need Assad to remain in power, or the entire region collapses.

Also, the US, while working with Sunnis needs Shia as a counterbalance for their very “allies”.

You can expect a very major Middle East flare up this summer, so matters will change.

ISIS is very much not for the Russian regime’s interests. And they are not blind to that. Nor is anyone else. That is not a “message”, Russia does what Russia does. Aiding ISIS would be paramount to helping ensure Sunni domination in the region and only increase economic and military harm to Iran. Further, stronger flare up, which is highly likely, demands stronger Allied presence in the area, which is the last thing Russia would want.

The US has much blame for the rise of ISIS. However, that is clearly simply because of neglect and mismanagement in the region.

ISIS invariably will cause more severe problems in the region. This will invariably work out favorably to some actors, not favorably to others. And only at great cost.

@SoWhatDidYouExpect

Ed Snowden has stated that mass surveillance is “about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.” A sentiment which has been echoed by others. Who, then, stands to gain from mass surveillance?.. I believe Big Money hopes to gain more money, but will they? Big Power will certainly gain more power but what value is that in a soon-to-be value-less society?

Big Money and Big Power work together but as enemies pretending to be friends.

They are natural enemies. Typically, one of the other would be slated to win, and go extinct. The winner is going to be big power, which translates into “intelligence”. Law enforcement and military can be included in big power, but intelligence rules them. In no small part this is because intelligence can operate under cover at high levels of law enforcement and military for cover, funding, and control reasons.

Note I do not include politicians here in the mix, which would be laughable to include. People domestically and foreign will argue it is all about the politicians, but they believe they have control by the election process.

The aggressive domestic and intelligence programs which have been exposed have been very light on substantial evidence for economic intelligence and other forms of significantly worrisome intelligence programs.

The US appears to be overzealous in their desire to fight terrorism, so the economic and other foreign and domestic negative impact has been relatively minor. What the US tends to not mention is that foreign intelligence is a very major part of their concern in these actions.

This includes the “shocking” political espionage disclosures which seem transparent in attempts to merely get better information for diplomatic efforts.

People can put these points in their considerations, or not. Assuming this means there may not be sinister motivations involved because of these facts is also laughable. Even more laughable then believing power is in the hands of politicians or political parties. While this makes the problem significantly more difficult to understand, don’t shortcut thinking just because the problem is more mysterious then it appears on the surface.

Unfortunately, many engaged in these issues, however, are unlikely to consider ideas outside of their own group’s norms, or consider ideas which otherwise might not be publicaly palatable.

On the US becoming “valueless”, while that is an useful consideration to take, and outside the norm, so laudable, ultimately stopping there is also not going to predict the future. But, that is one consideration that can lead to other possibilities which can be useful. The phrase I would use in that direction is “the world being turned upside down”. Or, a major reordering of all social structures.

I think anyone can consider just how badly that is needed, and notice how this often surfaces in popular consciousness. Such as through the obsession in “post-apocalypse” and “dystopian futures” in fiction. Also, cognizance, in general of the world being deeply sick in ways which people usually have difficulty putting their finger on.

@konst

What in the world made you decide to use squid as the Friday posts for uncovered security news??

I do not know. So this may be one of those cases where someone is as interpreting a lyric or writing very differently then how the writer sees it.

However I would point out that there is core symbolism in the concept of a massive, horrible underwater beast called “The Leviathan”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan

9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. 10 No-one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? ..31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment…33 Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature without fear.34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.

While it is unlikely “leviathan” is anything directly related to squids, squids can be related to the “leviathan”. Squids also produce ink as a defensive mechanism which causes them to effectively become invisible. Ink is potentially symbolic for a thread where people post freely, eg, write.

“Underwater” is a powerful term, and indicating “deep underwater” is a related, but also very powerful symbol. It could be said to be related to people’s concepts of “underground”. People going deep underwater require sophisticated equipment and they find themselves in a world very, very different from “up above”. In fact, if they rise from the deep too quickly they can threaten their very lives. And likewise, they only go down with extraordinary preparation and change.

In one related poem, people of power are presented as people who operate “on the water”, and are depicted as sea traders. That same author also uses the term “ocean” effectively for nations and peoples of the nations.

Typically power changes are considered from “up above”, “higher up”. However, much of what is done and decreed higher up actually effects the “down below”. And the “higher up” have to have some manner of presence and control “down below” to do this.

This symbolism also ties into the “leviathan” symbolism. The leviathan’s greatness purpose is noted in the above poem’s lines as pointing to the power of the higher up, for instance. Though “higher up” often means in everyday parlance across nations and languages such things as “supervisors”, or other equally non-deeply-mysterious entities.