News in the Category "Text"

Page 2 of 64

Ben’s Book of the Month: Rewiring Democracy

  • Ben Rothke
  • RSA Conference
  • November 4, 2025

At the Infosec World 2025 conference last week, AI dominated discussions and vendor displays. One sparsely attended speaker joked that including AI in the title of his talk would have drawn a larger crowd.

When I heard about Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship (MIT Press) by Bruce Schneier and Dr. Nathan Sanders, I expected a harsh critique of AI’s impact on democracy, but the book instead presents a nuanced thesis on how AI will transform, rather than simply threaten, our political systems…

Read More →

SRI Appoints Bruce Schneier as Visiting Senior Policy Fellow

‍Global security expert Bruce Schneier joins University of Toronto’s Munk School and the Schwartz Reisman Institute as a visiting fellow to tackle one of today’s defining questions: how can we build AI systems—and societies—that people can truly trust?

  • Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Policy
  • October 28, 2025

Few thinkers have done more to reframe how we understand security in a networked world than Bruce Schneier. To him, security isn’t just about cryptography or code—it’s about trust, power, and the human choices embedded in every system we build.

For three decades, Schneier has asked what it really means to be secure, and who gets to decide. From designing cryptographic algorithms to writing bestselling books that redefined public conversations on privacy and power, the Harvard-based security expert has become one of the world’s most trusted interpreters of how technology shapes society…

Read More →

Tech Experts See Artificial Intelligence as a Key Resource Ahead of Local Elections

  • Maya Y. Fu, Helia M. Hung, and Adelaide L.D. Roger
  • The Harvard Crimson
  • October 23, 2025

Cambridge’s local elections are just around the corner—and scientists Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders said that artificial intelligence will be a critical tool to help inform voters before they head to the polls.

Schneier and Sanders, a Harvard Kennedy School lecturer, co-authored the book "Rewiring Democracy" that was released on Oct. 21. The two appeared at a Cambridge Public Library panel to share more about how citizens can use AI to get involved in politics on Wednesday evening.

They noted that Cambridge’s municipal elections on Nov. 4 are a prime opportunity for voters to use AI. With the most crowded field of candidates in recent memory, Schneier—a New York Times bestselling author—said the technology can be used to help summarize information about candidates…

Read More →

Schneier Tries to Rip the Rose-Colored AI Glasses from the Eyes of Congress

  • Thomas Claburn
  • The Register
  • June 11, 2025

Security guru Bruce Schneier played the skunk at the garden party in a Thursday federal hearing on AI’s use in the government, focusing on the risks many are ignoring.

“The other speakers mostly talked about how cool AI was—and sometimes about how cool their own company was—but I was asked by the Democrats to specifically talk about DOGE and the risks of exfiltrating our data from government agencies and feeding it into AIs,” Schneier explained in a blog post.

DOGE stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s a White House initiative, run until recently by centi-billionaire Elon Musk, that has been rifling through government databases and ordering layoffs at various government agencies in the name of cost savings and efficiency. Its staff cuts have been so extensive that the Trump administration reportedly …

Read More →

Harvard’s Schneier Gives Lawmakers a Tour Through DOGE-Driven AI Risks

  • Charlie Mitchell
  • Inside AI Policy
  • June 6, 2025

The Trump administration’s DOGE initiative to revamp federal systems and scale back the workforce has involved unvetted uses of artificial intelligence to comb through sensitive data and has exacerbated the government’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities, according to computer scientist, activist and Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Bruce Schneier.

“Data security breaches present significant dangers to everyone in the United States, from private citizens to corporations to government agencies to elected officials,” Schneier testified at a June 5 House Oversight hearing…

Read More →

What Magic Johnson and Bruce Schneier Taught Us at RSAC 2025

  • Tom Spring
  • SC Media
  • May 5, 2025

At first glance, Bruce Schneier and Magic Johnson have about as much in common as a firewall and a fast break. But last week was the annual RSAC confab, where the agendas can read like someone spun a roulette wheel loaded with cyber policy, threat intel—and apparently, NBA legends.

Last Tuesday, Schneier delivered his keynote on “AI, Security, and Trust,” a cerebral clinic on why the tech world is barreling toward a cliff. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson took the stage with “The Art of the Assist,” where he served business wisdom with a side of charisma. It’s the kind of conference whiplash RSAC has perfected: one minute you’re deep in machine learning risk models, the next you’re in a standing ovation for a guy who redefined the no-look pass…

Read More →

A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend Them Back (2023) by Bruce Schneier

  • Sandip Dholakia
  • The Ohio State University Institute for Cybersecurity & Digital Trust
  • March 17, 2025

Bottom Line:

Hall of Fame Candidate; I recommend this nonfiction book for the Cybersecurity Canon Hall of Fame.

Review:

When we think of a hacker, we think of a person wearing a black hoodie with a skull logo on the front. That is because we associate hacking with criminals and technology. However, that is not always the case, according to Bruce Schneier. In his latest book, “A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend Them Back,” the author, a seasoned security professional, defies this common notion. Schneier explains that hacking does not have to be associated only with technology and criminals. He explains that whenever we bend rules or find loopholes in the system, we are hacking the system…

Read More →

DOGE Is Putting the Country’s Data and Computing Infrastructure at Risk, HKS Expert Argues

Cyber security expert Bruce Schneier worries that DOGE’s access to highly sensitive information is giving bad actors a chance to take advantage.

  • Harvard Kennedy School
  • February 19, 2025

Before the Trump administration took office, what has become known as DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, was touted as a tool for injecting private sector efficiencies into the federal workforce. Under the leadership of Elon Musk, DOGE has taken an unexpectedly radical tack—it has initiated mass layoffs and the wholesale shuttering of federal offices and agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development. Perhaps less visible are the effects of DOGE’s unprecedent access to many highly sensitive federal databases and payment tools. Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and lecturer at the Kennedy School, wrote about this for The Atlantic and Foreign Policy. We spoke with him to learn more about the risks to federal data…

Read More →

Nearly 10 Years After Data and Goliath, Bruce Schneier Says: Privacy’s Still Screwed

“In 50 years, I think we'll view these business practices like we view sweatshops today”

  • Iain Thomson
  • The Register
  • February 15, 2025

It has been nearly a decade since famed cryptographer and privacy expert Bruce Schneier released the book Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World—an examination of how government agencies and tech giants exploit personal data. Today, his predictions feel eerily accurate.

At stake, he argued then, was a possibly irreversible loss of privacy, and the archiving of everything. As he wrote, science fiction author Charlie Stross described the situation as the “end of prehistory,” in that every facet of our lives would be on a computer somewhere and available to anyone who knew how to find them…

Read More →

Researchers Find Some Worry, Some Hope for AI in Democracy

Experts say intense focus on artificial intelligence as a misinformation tool can miss the mark

  • Jennifer Smith
  • CommonWealth Beacon
  • December 10, 2024

When it comes to the 2024 election season, the democratic sky didn’t fall because of artificial intelligence, Harvard researchers say, with candidates using the technology to reach voters in helpful new ways. But, they warn, it is still worth keeping a wary eye on some of AI’s most insidious possible applications.

New Englanders may recall the use of artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice to dissuade voters from participating in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. More than a dozen states, including Massachusetts, have adopted or …

Read More →
1 2 3 4 … 64

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.