News in the Category "Text"
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Q&A With Bruce Schneier
Expert says security benefits must be weighed against tradeoffs
The IAPP is pleased that security guru, chief technologist and author Bruce Schneier will present a keynote address at the Privacy Summit, March 11-13 in Washington, DC. Here’s a preview of what you’ll hear when Schneier takes the stage.
IAPP: You have a cult-like following youon Facebook. One group is called Bruce Schneier for president (31 members); another calls itself Bruce Schneier is my hero (200 members). What is the most heroic thing you’ve ever done?
Schneier: I’ve never considered myself particularly heroic. What I think people are responding to is my ability to think clearly about, and explain, security systems – and to speak the truth as I see it, regardless of who it might piss off. Valuable, yes; but not heroism…
Safe, But Also Sorry
Security expert Bruce Schneier talks about privacy and property in the information state
As Washington, D.C., gears up for the inauguration, there’s one thing that you’re not seeing around town. Shoe-checking stations. While one attempted shoe bombing was enough to make all of us wander unshod through the airports of this great nation for years—there will be security check points all over Capitol Hill—shoe checking will not be part of the action.
Why? It’s not that the chance of a shoe bombing has somehow been definitively eliminated. It’s because the costs (frostbitten toes and long delays) have been weighed against the (low) possible risk of Richard Reid II. We probably should have reached the same conclusion about airports long ago. But this particular brand of cost-benefit analysis often eludes security officials, especially in the public sector…
Security Expert Bruce Schneier: Budget Should be Priority for National CTO
Bruce Schneier, a security commentator and author who The Register calls, “The closest the security industry has to a rock star,” took time to correspond via e-mail with Government Technology about the latest security threats to public-sector IT.
He publishes a popular blog and newsletter on Schneier.com. His most recent book, Schneier on Security, is a collection of previously published essays on security-related topics, such as identification cards, cyber-crime, election security and the psychology of security.
A few CIOs in government are touting “user-generated government”—i.e., mash-up applications and open source built by citizens. Though this appears to be an economical move, do you think turning to everyday citizens like this opens government to security threats?…
Bruce Schneier: More on the Broad View of Security
Bruce Schneier’s evolution of interests is well documented, moving from encryption to broader and broader perspectives on security. (Hence his recent appearance on 60 Minutes, commenting on TSA’s airport screening procedures.) To bring wider perspectives to bear on security issues, Schneier (Chief Security Technology Officer at BT) held in 2008 the first Workshop in Security and Human Behavior, with participants from a broad swath of disciplines including economics, psychology and more. Schneier spoke with CSOonline about his multidisciplinary view of the field and plans for 2009…
That Tiresome Warning About Inappropriate Jokes
Excerpt
Over the years, Mr. Schneier has been a tough critic of the security agency, though he credits Mr. Hawley for “doing the best job he could with the bad hand he was dealt.” By that, he says he means that the agency operates under mandates from Congress and elsewhere that resulted in a vast, expensive bureaucracy.
The agency, he argues, is required to spend less effort than it should on sophisticated intelligence-gathering and more than it should on deeply flawed procedures, like depending on travel documents that can be easily counterfeited, or fishing in passengers’ bags for contraband screwdrivers and prohibited items like jars of spaghetti sauce that exceed three ounces…
Bruce Schneier on IT Insecurity
There are no easy solutions to today's security challenges, and companies often approach them in the wrong way, says Bruce Schneier.
Talking with security expert Bruce Schneier does not always leave a person feeling more secure. That’s because Schneier doesn’t sell easy solutions. Instead, he challenges businesses, governments and individuals to examine their assumptions about risk, to eschew simplistic answers and to accept the fact that no system is—or can be—perfectly secure.
Now the chief security technology officer of BT, Schneier worked at the Department of Defense and Bell Labs before founding Counterpane Internet Security, which was acquired by BT. He has a master’s degree in computer science and a B. A. in physics…
Top 25 Most Influential People in the Security Industry
Excerpt
#19: Bruce Schneier, Influential Security Technologist
Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, referred to by The Economist as a “security guru.” He is the author of eight books – including the best sellers Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World; Secrets and Lies; and Applied Cryptography – as well as hundreds of articles and essays in national and international publications, and many more academic papers. His influential newsletter Crypto-Gram, and his blog Schneier on Security, are read by over 250,000 people. “I consider myself a synthesist and a communicator. My biggest accomplishments involve understanding complex ideas and explaining them simply, as well as finding connections and patterns and commonalities among diverse ideas. I write, I speak, I write more. The single thing that fans say to me that makes me the most proud of my work is: ‘You’ve changed the way I think.’ That’s what I want to do: change the way people think about security…
Bruce Schneier: Securing Your PC and Your Privacy
He might be called the international rock star of computer security. Having testified before Congress and given well-regarded speeches the world over, when Bruce Schneier talks about security, experts listen. A prolific author, he has penned articles for publications ranging from Wired to The Guardian to the Sydney Morning Herald. His books include Applied Cryptography, which delves into the science of secret codes, and Beyond Fear, which details how to protect security on the personal and national level.
His recently released book, Schneier on Security…
Interview with Bruce Schneier
An edited version of this interview will appear in CIO Insight.
I asked security guru Bruce Schneier about those troublesome voting machines and the mindset that foists them upon us.
Schneier: The security of voting machines points to two big issues. The first one is that security is actually very hard. People think technology magically makes security worries a thing of the past, but it’s just not true. Security is very hard and very subtle.
These voting machine companies were no better than any other software, or hardware, computer company we’ve seen in the past few years. They did a really lousy job. And because the systems were proprietary, because the companies had a vested interest in keeping the flaws secret, the public didn’t know about them. So we have this problem of insecure voting machines…
The Things He Carried
Excerpt
This day, however, would feature a different sort of experiment, designed to prove not only that the TSA often cannot find anything on you or in your carry-on, but that it has no actual idea who you are, despite the government’s effort to build a comprehensive “no-fly” list. A no-fly list would be a good idea if it worked; Bruce Schneier’s homemade boarding passes were about to prove that it doesn’t. Schneier is the TSA’s most relentless, and effective, critic; the TSA director, Kip Hawley, told me he respects Schneier’s opinions, though Schneier quite clearly makes his life miserable…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.