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Book Review: Liars and Outliers by Bruce Schneier
I recently read Bruce Schneier’s latest book – Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive.
It’s a good book, of potential interest not just to technology people, but also to anyone wishing to understand more about the way the world works. Schneier uses a wealth of examples to demonstrate that without implicit trust towards pretty much everyone around us, society falls apart.
Reading this book convinced me once more that calls for more surveillance and a more extensive police state must be resisted. The underlying assumption (that crime can be brought down to 0% if only we give up most of our liberties) is a false one. Schneier convincingly argues that the cost of wiping out crime is too high for society – we should therefore stop the hysteria about “total security” and get on with our lives…
Video: Interview: Liars and Outliers
Davi Ottenheimer, President of flyingpenguin, interviews Bruce Schneier on his latest book.
We don’t demand a background check on the plumber who shows up to fix the leaky sink. We don’t do a chemical analysis on food we eat. In the absence of personal relationships, we have no choice but to substitute confidence for trust, compliance for trustworthiness. This progression has enabled society to scale to unprecedented complexity, but has also permitted massive global failures. At the same time, too much cooperation is bad. Without some level of rule-breaking, innovation and social progress become impossible. Society stagnates. Bruce Schneier, world-renowned for his level-headed thinking on security and technology, tackles this complex subject head-on. Society can’t function without trust, and yet must function even when people are untrustworthy…
Bruce Schneier’s Latest Book
It’s Liars and Outliers, and I would rate it the best economics book of the year thus far. He writes about his book here and here.
Schneier views our lives from the perspective of game theory. Every day, we must decide whether to cooperate or to defect. Do I try to arrive at work on time, or do I show up late? Do I drive safely or aggressively? Do I support the goals of my department, or do I work for myself? Does my department support the goals of the larger organization, or does it pursue its own interests? Does the larger organization work to support the goals of the society to which it belongs, or does it pursue its own goals?…
Video: Interview: The Meaning of Trust in Today's Digital World
Bruce Schneier discussed his book Liars and Outliers at the RSA Conference 2012.
Liars and Outliers: Thoughts and Conclusions
In a previous post, we looked at the first half of Bruce Schneier’s interesting book. To recap, Liars and Outliers examines how trust mechanisms work, whether you’re ordering products online from people you’ve never met, or you’re paying a neighborhood kid to mow your lawn. In order for commerce to function, there must be a certain level of trust.
The second half of the book deals with Organizations, Corporations and Institutions and how their competing interests work out in real world situations. A model often used in the book is that of fishing. Overfishing will deplete the stock and eventually ruin the industry, so most individuals and companies don’t engage in it. However, ‘defectors’ may overfish because of the short term benefits and the low risk of getting caught…
RSA 2012: Are Software Liability Laws Needed?
Software liability laws are needed to hold software companies accountable for making faulty products, argued Bruce Schneier, chief technology security officer with BT during a pro-con debate held Wednesday at the RSA Conference.
Schneier said that liability laws would transfer the economic cost for faulty software from the user to the developer and provide an incentive for the developer to fix the problem.
He compared the situation of the software market to the early days of the automobile industry when Congress passed laws that held auto manufacturers responsible for faulty vehicles that caused accidents. This prompted the auto industry to begin fixing the problems, such as stop using wooden wheels that would fall apart at high speeds…
Video: Bruce Schneier Tackles Sociology of Trust and Security
Bruce Schneier’s latest book, Liars and Outliers, is a departure from his previous landmark books on cryptography and information security. In Liars and Outliers, Schneier pulls back from technology and looks at trust and security and how those very human concepts have evolved in concert with the development of cooperative societies to build the trust and security mechanisms we have today.
In this interview conducted at RSA Conference 2012, Schneier explains his interest in the sociology of security and trust and how today’s online interactions are changing the trust dynamic. He paints a not-so-bleak picture of why the Internet remains a trustworthy and viable platform for communication and ecommerce, and talks about whether social networking and technical feedback mechanisms comprise the new trust going forward…
RSA 2012: Three Greatest (And Suprising) Internet Security Dangers
Cybercriminals are not the greatest threat to Internet security. It’s the many forces trying to bend the world’s computer network to fit their interests.
That’s according to Bruce Schneier, a renowned security technologist and author of several books, including “Applied Cryptography.” Schneier told attendees Tuesday at the RSA Conference that the three greatest dangers are Big Data companies, poorly thought out government regulations, and the cyberwar arms race.
These threats foster instability through those lobbying for changes that further their self-interests, instead of what’s better universally, Schneier said. “The security community doesn’t have a lobby, common sense doesn’t have a lobby and technical excellence doesn’t have a lobby.”…
RSA 2012: Schneier Reveals Three Biggest Information Security Risks in 2012
In his session at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, February 28th 2012, Bruce Schneier listed what he perceives to be the three biggest risks to information security right now: The rise of big data; ill-conceived law enforcement regulations; and the cyberwar arms race.
The rise of big data
The rise of big data, Schneier declared, is inevitable due to the cost of saving data being so cheap. “It’s easy and cheaper to search than sort,” he said. “The collection of data is being aggravated – mainly so the companies doing it can make more money… Companies like Apple, Amazon and Google are all competing to be the company that monetises your data.”…
RSA 2012: Schneier on Why Anonymous Is Not a Group and Why They're Certainly Not As Good As You Think They Are
At the RSA Conference 2012 in San Francisco, February 29, Bruce Schneier and Davi Ottenheimer discuss Schneier’s latest book and how to enable the trust that society needs to thrive.
Following on from Schneier’s talk yesterday on the three biggest risks to information security in 2012, this discussion focussed purely on the topic of Schneier’s latest book, Liars and Outliers.
Here are some of the session highlights:
- Security depends on people. “I started in cryptography because I didn’t like people. I wanted to study numbers. Anyone in security needs to understand that people act in unpredictable ways.”…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.