News: 2020 Archives
Audio: Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Podcast
Listen to the Audio on FirewallsDontStopDragons.com
The dumpster fire that was 2020 is almost behind us, and it’s time to look forward to a brighter future in 2021! By a stroke of fortuitous coincidence, this is also my 200th podcast! To celebrate these two important milestones, we have a world-renowned security guru for our guest, Bruce Schneier, and I’ll be giving away over $1800 worth of great stuff to help you improve your privacy and security in 2021! And if all of that weren’t enough, I’ll also be sharing with you several top-notch to-do list ideas for your 2021 New Year’s resolutions – not just from myself, but from several top industry experts! It’s an amazing star-studded, prize-riddled, info-packed podcast!…
Audio: The Hack by Russia Is Huge. Here’s Why It Matters.
Listen to the Audio on MPRNews.org
It’s an espionage campaign so broad that security experts say we’re still uncovering who was affected and what was stolen.
A massive computer breach pinned on a Russian intelligence agency allowed hackers to spend months exploring U.S. government and private company computers, undetected. Federal agencies like the Treasury and Commerce Departments were hit, as well as thousands of civilian networks. Hackers apparently got into networks through an update from SolarWinds, a software company.
Recovering from the attack won’t be easy. …
Review of Data and Goliath (German)
Wie und warum überwachen Firmen ihre Kunden? Wie und warum überwachen Regierungen ihre Bürgerinnen? Wie und warum bespitzeln und sabotieren Staaten sich gegenseitig? Welche Bedeutung hat Privatsphäre und wie lange wird es sie noch geben? Bruce Schneier behandelt diese Fragen auf knapp 300 Seiten unglaublich rund, ausgewogen und angenehm zu lesen. Die über hundert Seiten Quellennachweise und der zwanzigseitige Index kommen noch hinzu.
Der Autor kennt sich mit der Technik, den Gesetzen, der Politik und der Ideengeschichte aus und verwebt alle Informationen aus diesen verschiedenen Kategorien zu einem beeindruckenden, interessanten und besorgniserrenden Bild der allgegenwärtigen Überwachung am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Das Erklären globaler Zusammenhänge, das Peter Scholl-Latour jahrzehntelang für die analoge Welt übernommen hat, leistet Bruce Schneier mit “Data and Goliath” für die internetbasierte Weltgesellschaft. Dabei sagt er unverblümt seine Meinung, ohne zu verschweigen, dass es konträre Meinungen gibt. Außerdem gönnt er seinen Leserinnen in keinem Moment die Illusion, es gäbe einfache Lösungen. Im Gegenteil: Schneier betont die Verantwortung aller Bürger demokratischer Staaten, sich zu informieren, mit den Mächtigen zu kommunizieren und sich politisch zu organisieren…
Video: The Most Consequential Cyber-Attack in History Just Happened. What Now?
Watch the Video on LATimes.com
The recently revealed hack of government networks, believed to have been conducted by Russia, is a historic act of espionage and revealed severe leaks in the U.S.’s cyberdefense, says cryptographer and security expert Bruce Schneier.
Video: AshbrookLIVE #14 – Bruce Schneier
Watch the Video on YouTube.com
A Vast Cyberattack on the USA: Russian hackers put the US federal government at “grave risk”. The Fortune 500 too. Cyber master Bruce Schneier lays out the depth of the debacle.
Audio: How Your Digital Footprint Makes You the Product
Listen to the Audio on TechSequences.org
You have probably heard the saying: “If you are not paying for the product, you ARE the product”. Nowhere is this more acute than on the internet when our personal data is collected, analyzed and used to persuade us to buy products or ideas, many times without our explicit knowledge or permission. Our guest Bruce Schneier, a renowned security technologist, author and Berkman Klein Center fellow at Harvard has said: “On the internet data is power, to the extent the powerless have access to it, they gain in power, to the extent the already powerful have access to it, they further consolidate their power.”…
Video: Hack in the Box Security Conference Keynote Interview
Watch the Video on YouTube.com
For this keynote, Bruce gave attendees the chance to pick his brain and have him answer their burning questions live. Bruce chose 10 of the questions to answer on the future of our ever changing cyber security landscape.
Video: Election Security: Securing the Vote While Securing the System
Discussion on how voting machines are inherently vulnerable—what can and should be done to make them safer—to adhere to the ‘Gold Standard’ of paper ballots used in many states across the US in this election. Further discussion on hacking, audits and International bad actors trying to infiltrate state election databases as well as old voting machines that are vulnerable to attack and manipulation. An open and frank discussion with a ‘security guru’ with decades of experience on how we can keep America’s democratic process of voting safe and secure. …
#ISC2Congress: Modern Security Pros Are Much More than Technologists, Says Bruce Schneier
Speaking in the opening keynote of the virtual (ISC)2 Security Congress, renowned security technologist and best-selling author Bruce Schneier discussed the public-interest aspects of technology.
In particular, he explored the ethics of data privacy and security, whilst also outlining how today’s cybersecurity professionals are more than technologists; the work they do affects society as a whole.
“In cybersecurity, government access to encrypted communications has been the subject of a 25-year long debate. On the one side, there are police claiming they are going dark and need access to encrypted data in order to solve crimes. On the other side, security experts say it is impossible to provide that access without making systems insecure.”…
Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World (Review)
Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier is an eye-opening look into the secret operations of our country’s surveillance operations. Through his analysis of the classified information leaked by former CIA contractor, Edward Snowden, Bruce breaks down the impacts that mass surveillance is having on society. He brings immense insights into how government and societies need to rectify the power imbalance and work to restore privacy and trust. While many of Bruce’s recommendations involve broad, overarching changes to legislation, there are several principles that security professionals can adopt to do our part—such as building resilience into our systems and processes; fixing vulnerabilities; upholding trust; and not subverting products or standards…
Audio: Ballot Question 1: Risks & Regulations Regarding Right to Repair
Join Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi and security technologist Bruce Schneier as they discuss risks associated with car telematics as well as how best to ensure public safety in the future of the internet of everything.
Audio: We Live in a Security and Privacy World that Science Fiction Didn’t Predict
Bruce Schneier was interviewed by David Quisenberry and John L. Whiteman on the podcast of the Open Web Application Security Project’s Portland, Oregon chapter.
How Amazon and Walmart Could Fix IoT Security
Bruce Schneier Says Pressure on Retailers Could Fix Insecure IoT Supply Chains
IoT devices can be made cheaply and quickly. But as a result, they may lack adequate security features.
There’s been a global effort by countries, standards organizations and corporations to improve the state of IoT security through voluntary baseline standards. Connected devices suffer from a range of issues, including insecure default configurations when they’re sold as well as inconsistent patching by vendors.
But an IoT device isn’t just one product. It’s an assembly of components that come from a variety of manufacturers made in a variety of places. A security problem could be rooted in any of those components…
The Cyberflâneur #29: Bruce Schneier
A selection of books, essays, and academic papers chosen by Bruce Schneier for The Syllabus.
I. Citizen Hacker
This essay expands on the notion that people should “hack” democracy as a vehicle for change. Peering beyond the buzzwords, a healthier approach to political transformation through technological means “would involve refraining from fetishizing the tools while taking their intrinsically political nature into account along with the question of their design.”
II. Coding Democracy
This book offers an exploration of hackers as both societal disrupters and innovators. Admirably, Webb not only lays out a theoretical case for how hackers can invent “new forms of distributed, decentralized democracy” but she provides a close examination of prominent and productive case studies…
Audio: Interview with Bruce Schneier for Blockchain Rules Podcast Series
Our new series of interviews are based on the executive online programme “Blockchain Rules”. In this series, we are going to interview thought leaders from the blockchain ecosystem interested in sharing their thoughts and opinion about the topics that will be covered in the “Blockchain Rules” course. In this second podcast of the series Dr. Giovanna Massarotto, UCL Blockchain Rules Online Programme Coordinator, interviews Bruce Schneier.
Audio: Is Contact Tracing Dumb? False Positives, Loss of Trust, and an Uncertain Path Back to Normalcy
Listen to the Audio on PolicyPunchline.com
There has been so much hype about contact tracing technology and how it will be the key to reopening the country. Google and Apple, for example, are building a system to track contact between people who might spread the disease. The idea is simple: since Bluetooth is constantly scanning for other devices, your phone can use wireless signals to see who you’ve been near. Somebody who gets a positive diagnosis can tell the app, which will inform everyone else who has been in proximity to alert them about risks of possible transmission…
Coronavirus, il guru Bruce Schneier: «Le app di contact tracing? Inutili. Margini di errore troppo alti»
Quando il giornalista Glenn Greenwald ha dovuto cercare uno specialista che decifrasse la mole di documenti della National Security Agency consegnati da Edward Snowden non ha avuto dubbi: c’era solo una persona in America capace di tradurre codici e algoritmi in informazioni chiare per un pubblico ampio. E quella persona si chiamava Bruce Schneier.
Sette anni dopo, con la stessa lucidità con cui ha contribuito a svelare il sistema di spionaggio del governo americano ai danni dei cittadini, Schneier—una ventina di libri, ricercatore del Berkman Center for Internet & Society di Harvard, consulente del Dipartimento della difesa e di aziende (ultima l’IBM)—sintetizza così il suo giudizio sulle app di …
Audio: Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World
Listen to the Audio on PolicyPunchline.com
In this interview, Mr. Schneier explains why tech today is fundamentally different as it’s no longer the same mechanical or electromechanical device but rather all hackable computers; why the “surveillance capitalism” business model of big tech companies in fact encourages security flaws; how open source and decentralization technology can go a long way helping address the issues; and his vision for a secure “Internet+” future and some of the sensible and realistic policies that we can implement……
Audio: Bruce Schneier on Truth, Reality, and Contact Tracing
Doc Searls and Katherine Druckman talk to Bruce Schneier about contact tracing, digital identity, hacking, privacy, and regulation.
Video: Public Interest Technologists—Interview with Bruce Schneier and Jon Callas
An interview with security experts Bruce Schneier and Jon Callas about public interest technologists. What are public interest technologists, and why are they important? Find out in this in-depth interview.
Video: Heise Webinar
Bruce Schneier spoke about incident response and IoT security as part of Heise’s online conference “Best of IT-Security.”
An Interview with Bruce Schneier, Renowned Security Technologist
Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned, award-winning public-interest technologist who serves as Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, a company working to bring Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s distributed data ownership model into the mainstream. Mr. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AccessNow, and the Tor Project; and an Advisory Board Member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the author of over a dozen books—including one of the quintessential cryptography texts, …
Audio: Breaking Down the Huawei v. Pentagon Dispute
If nothing else, the long-running Huawei situation shows the importance of considering the supply chain when it comes to cybersecurity. Huawei being the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker basically banned by the federal government. This topic came up at the recent RSA security conference, where Bruce Schneier was. He’s Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University, and well-known cybersecurity. He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to tell us more.
How to Detect Coronavirus Myths, Scams and Fake News: Security Guru Bruce Schneier Weighs In On COVID-19
The Novel Coronavirus pandemic has scarcely afforded health care authorities with enough time to develop a cohesive testing protocol for millions of Americans. Filling this vacuum, a flood of false and misleading information now threatens to become another alarming side effect of the outbreak.
“We already know that there are disinformation campaigns being run by foreign actors, as well as misinformation being spread from all four corners of the Internet—including from our own president,” relates Bruce Schneier, the renowned cybersecurity specialist in an exclusive Seattle24x7 interview…
#RSAC: How to Hack Society
The method, procedures, and practices used by cybersecurity professionals have relevance beyond just the technology sphere; they can also be used to hack society.
That’s the view espoused by Bruce Schneier, security technologist, researcher, and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, during a keynote session at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
“This is the big idea: we here in our community have developed some very effective techniques to deal with code and technology,” Schneier said. “Can our expertise in IT security transfer to broader social systems like the tax code, or the systems we use to choose our elected officials or the market economy?”…
What’s the Best Way to Use the Cloud to Store Personal Data?
Excerpt
Cloud storage can be a worrisome proposition, particularly as our digital archives grow. Should you back up everything to the cloud, or just some things? Is there data you shouldn’t store in the cloud? And which services should you trust?
No definitive blueprint exists for proper care of your archives, but there are a number of strategies to consider as digital security becomes more of a concern. The Wall Street Journal hosted an email conversation with three experts on cloud storage and the security and privacy issues around it: Alexis Hancock, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Ray Lucchesi, president and founder of Silverton Consulting, a storage consulting-services agency; and Bruce Schneier, a security technologist who lectures on public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Edited excerpts follow…
Audio: Bruce Schneier: On the Future of Public-Interest Tech
In our latest episode, renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier joined Caroline Wong for an enlightening conversation on the future of public-interest technology. Hailed as a “security guru” by The Economist, Bruce has authored more than a dozen books on security and cryptography, testified before Congress, and served on multiple government committees. Bruce is currently a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a board member of the EFF, AccessNow, and the Tor Project. Hundreds of thousands of people regularly read his blog “Schneier on Security.” He joined Humans of InfoSec to discuss the future of ethical technology and the role technologists can play in positively shaping public policy…
Not Just about the Data
Cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier explains why IoT is a new kind of threat
The Internet of Things (IoT) finds its way into your life slowly at first. An Alexa device in the kitchen is soon accompanied by a connected camera for your doorbell. Before you know it, you’re surrounded by gadgets made cheaply by companies that believe security is, at best, an afterthought.
The IoT is fraught with vulnerability issues, and hackers may enlist these devices as players in malicious botnets. That said, the IoT’s security problems are often overblown in the media. Every new technology has its stumbles, but those mistakes can be corrected. …
Audio: Bruce Schneier: How Insecure, Unregulated Tech Is Endangering the World
Security researcher Bruce Schneier talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his recent book, Click Here to Kill Everybody. He also explains why the internet of things is a “dumpster fire,” what regulations need to be implemented to keep people safe, and why the European Union and a few US states may determine the future of tech regulation.
Listen to the Audio on Apple.com, Spotify.com, or Player.fm
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.