News in the Category "Articles"
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Present State of Security
World-renowned IT security expert Bruce Schneier gave a talk on the future of the industry, which remains quite new.
As well as being Chief Security Technology Officer at BT, Bruce Schneier is also the author of several books on the topics of security and cryptography with a particular, if not exclusive, focus on the IT industry, which has led The Economist to describe him as a “security guru”. And when discussing security he is refreshingly candid and forthright, not dissimilar in tone to Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, while sharing with Levitt the ability to view his chosen field from an angle less ordinary.
“Security is hard to sell for two reasons, economic and psychological,” he says. The industry is not necessarily logical: it is by nature complex, and as a consequence easy to get wrong. The average buyer doesn’t necessarily understand the products on offer, while the industry player often cannot explain them adequately, meaning that “new companies with good ideas often end up floundering because they cannot communicate those ideas.” Psychologically, security is also complicated: Schneier points out the difference between “greed sales” and “fear sales”, where the former is a simple question of wanting something, while the latter is being afraid of the consequences of not having that thing…
"Schneier on Security;" A Judge’s Son Builds a Reputation of Cryptic Fame
BROOKLYN—Americans living in the age of ultra-security have been subjected to a massive number of small accommodations in the name of the “War on Terror.”
Although most people have become accustomed to not bringing bottles of water on airplanes, there exists some cynicism about the effectiveness of our new security measures and how they relate to our day-to-day lives.
However, it takes an experienced security analyst like Brooklyn’s Bruce Schneier to understand the connections between the face of national security that we all can see, and the facts and technology behind it…
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…
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…
Data Guru Says Secret to Security Is to Focus on People
WHEN IT comes to security, Bruce Schneier would like people to stop worrying about what he calls “movie plot” scenarios. Exploding aircraft, attacks on landmark buildings, the whole category of “cyberterrorism” all rankle with Schneier, who thinks the ultimate security risk is “people.”
He may not be a household name, but he is quite possibly the most namechecked security expert in the world among technologists – and science fiction fans.
Schneier, who with ponytail and greying beard looks pleasingly like an eminent cryptologist should look, created two of the best-known security algorithms, nicknamed Blowfish and Twofish, and wrote Applied Cryptography, the bible of the digital security industry. The Economist hails him as “a security guru.” He is even mentioned in The Da Vinci Code…
A Silver Lining in a Gloomy Outlook
We recently sat down with security guru Bruce Schneier to talk about Internet security and, boy, did we get more than what we bargained for.
WITH the advance of new and better cybersecurity technologies, you’d expect the Internet to be a lot safer place for average users.
However, the world-renowned security expert Bruce Schneier paints an entirely different picture—in fact, a pretty gloomy one where no matter what you do to beef up security, it will not be enough. And in the future, things will even get a lot worse.
People tend to think that just because it’s technology, there is some magical solution to solve all the security concerns, Schneier said…
Bruce Schneier's New View on Security Theater
Security expert Bruce Schneieris rightly regarded as one of the industry’s most intelligent and insightful participants. He has made substantial personal contributions to the science of cryptology, and has written some of the best books on the subject.
Like many smart people, Schneier is also highly opinionated. Although I have yet to hear a technical opinion from Schneier that I disagree with, some of his nontechnical opinions are—in my opinion—open to debate.
For example, Schneier coined the term “Security Theater” to describe measures that serve to make people feel safer without significantly improving security in any real sense…
Bruce Schneier Shares Security Ideas at Museum
"Security theater" lecture complements photography exhibit showcasing images of fear, safety and liberty in post-9/11 America
Bruce Schneier shared his ideas about the psychology of security, and the need for thinking sensibly about security, in his hometown last week when he gave a lecture at the Weisman Art Museum in the US.
Schneier’s lecture was scheduled in conjunction with an exhibition of photographer Paul Shambroom‘s images of power (Shambroom’s photographs capture scenes in industrial, business, community and military environments.) The association of Schneier’s lecture with the photography exhibit says a lot about how the security guru’s focus has evolved over the years from the bits and bytes of cryptography and computer security to include a more broad examination of personal safety, crime, corporate security and national security…
Computer Security's Dubious Future
InfoWorld's Roger Grimes weighs in on why security expert Bruce Schneier thinks computer security won't get any better in the next 10 years
As longtime readers already know, I’m a big fan of Bruce Schneier, CTO and founder of BT Counterpane. Besides being a cryptographic and computer security authority, cryptographic algorithm creator, and author of many best-selling books on security, Bruce produces some of the most relevant conversations on computer security. I consider his books, his Cryptogram newsletter, and his blog must-reads for anyone in computer security.
Bruce is a guy who pushes us to rethink our currently held paradigms. He lays bare unsubstantiated dogma. I don’t always agree with Bruce. But many of the potent ideas that I disagreed with when he espoused them a half decade ago, I find myself agreeing with years later, ideas like how two-factor authentication won’t stop malicious hackers from stealing gobs of money from the online banking industry, and how the biggest problem with security, in general, is us and our irrational ranking of threats…
Criminal Hackers Gaining Advantage
But protection remains a hard sell with many companies, says security expert
EDMONTON – Technology’s becoming so fast and complex it’s outstripping our ability to keep out hackers and criminals, computer security guru Bruce Schneier said Monday.
“Complexity is the worst enemy of security,” Schneier told the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) conference Monday. “It’s getting worse faster than security is getting better, and we have no idea how to fix this.”
The hacker hobbyists of 10 years ago have been replaced by sophisticated criminals who can get into your computer or server without you knowing about it, said Schneier, whose latest book is Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.