Schneier on Security

Could you please tell us how you got involved in security?

Cryptography has always been a hobby of mine. My first job after college was with the Department of Defense. Years later, I was laid off from AT&T Bell Labs; I started writing about cryptography for computer magazines, and then my first book: Applied Cryptography. I also started doing cryptography consulting, forming a company Counterpane. Since then, my career has been an endless series of generalizations: from mathematical security to computer and network security, to more general security technology, to the economics of security and now the psychology of security. My current research centers around the human side of security, especially the security of complex socio-technical systems…