News in the Category "Type"
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Schneier: Government, Big Data Pose Bigger 'Net Threat than Criminals
As Bruce Schneier spent the past decade watching the growing rash of phishers, malware attacks, and identity theft, a new Internet threat has emerged that poses even greater risks, the security expert said.
Unlike the security risks posed by criminals, the threat from government regulation and data hoarders such as Apple and Google are more insidious because they threaten to alter the fabric of the Internet itself. They’re also different from traditional Internet threats because the perpetrators are shielded in a cloak of legitimacy. As a result, many people don’t recognize that their personal information or fortunes are more susceptible to these new forces than they ever were to the Russian Business Network or other Internet gangsters…
Book Review: Liars and Outliers
It is said that the song Wipe Out launched a generation of drummers. In the world of information security, the classic Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C by Bruce Schneier may have been the book that launched a generation of new cryptographers. Schneier’s latest work of art is Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive. For those that are looking for a follow-up to Applied Cryptography, this it is not. In fact, it is hard to classify this as an information security title and in fact the book is marked for the current affairs/sociology section. Whatever section this book ultimately falls in, the reader will find that Schneier is one of the most original thinkers around…
Review: Secrets & Lies by Bruce Schneier
I’m not sure how I first heard about Bruce Schneier, but his ideas have appealed to me for a while now. He has an impressive background in computer cryptography, but his transition to a personality in the field of security that interests me most. Utilizing a technical background to build a more socially-relevant identity is a feat I personally hope to accomplish one day (just like Tony Stark, “Mannie” O”Kelly-Davis, or Mitchell Hundred). But enough gushing; let’s talk about the book.
First of all, I bought Secrets & Lies expecting the kind of social commentary Schneier makes when writing about “security theater.” This is not that book. The author is clearly still developing his voice here; his focus is still largely on technology. Apart from a single brief aside on how people internalize sensational threats, this book provides little in the way of sociology…
REVIEW: Bruce Schneier, Liars and Outliers: …
Chapter one is what would ordinarily constitute an introduction or preface to the book. Schneier states that the book is about trust: the trust that we need to operate as a society. In these terms, trust is the confidence we can have that other people will reliably behave in certain ways, and not in others. In any group, there is a desire in having people cooperate and act in the interest of all the members of the group. In all individuals, there is a possibility that they will defect and act against the interests of the group, either for their own competing interest, or simply in opposition to the group. (The author notes that defection is not always negative: positive social change is generally driven by defectors.) Actually, the text may be more about social engineering, because Schneier does a very comprehensive job of exploring how confident we can be about trust, and they ways we can increase (and sometimes inadvertently decrease) that reliability…
Bruce Schneier’s Liars and Outliers: How Do You Trust in a Networked World?
John Scalzi’s Big Idea introduces Bruce Schneier’s excellent new book Liars and Outliers, and interviews Schneier on the work that went into it. I read an early draft of the book and supplied a quote: “Brilliantly dissects, classifies, and orders the social dimension of security-a spectacularly palatable tonic against today’s incoherent and dangerous flailing in the face of threats from terrorism to financial fraud.” Now that the book is out, I heartily recommend it to you.
It’s all about trust, really. Not the intimate trust we have in our close friends and relatives, but the more impersonal trust we have in the various people and systems we interact with in society. I trust airline pilots, hotel clerks, ATMs, restaurant kitchens, and the company that built the computer I’m writing this short essay on. I trust that they have acted and will act in the ways I expect them to. This type of trust is more a matter of consistency or predictability than of intimacy…
Trust and Society: A Review of Liars & Outliers by Bruce Schneier
When I was asked to review this book I was very pleased as I was able to get away from my day job of researching and analyzing new malware and spam. I’m not a book reviewer but here’s what I thought of his book.
Bruce Schneier’s new book, Liars & Outliers, is subtitled “Enabling the trust that society needs to thrive”, and the word society’ is key here.
Unlike many of the books that Schneier has written, this is not a technical book but it does describe—clearly and concisely—the problems that we, the computer security professionals, provide technical solutions for…
13 Security Myths You'll Hear—But Should You Believe?
Excerpt
Security Myth No. 1: “More Security is Always Better.”
Bruce Schneier, security expert and author of several books, including his most recent, Liars and Outliers, explains why this security concept of “you can’t get enough” that’s often bandied about is off the mark to him. Schneier explains: “More security isn’t necessarily better. First security is always a trade-off, and sometimes additional security costs more than it’s worth. For example, it’s not worth spending $100,000 to protect a donut. Yes, the donut would be more secure, but it would make more sense to simply risk the donut.” He also notes that “additional security is subject to diminishing returns. That is, measures that reduce a particular crime—say, shoplifting—by 25% cost some amount of money; but additional measures to reduce it another 25% cost much more. There will always be a point where more security isn’t worth it. And as a corollary, absolute security is not achievable.” Sometimes security may even become a moral choice and being in compliance might be an immoral decision, as it could pertain to a totalitarian system, for example. “Security enforces compliance, and sometimes complying isn’t the right thing to do.”…
Trust and Society
I used to think that Bruce Schneier was out of touch with industry CISOs, but now I think that they are out of touch with him. He’s come on tremendously in recent years. I saw him present to the United Nations last year and he was awesome, reflecting a lot of research and deep thinking about important issues such as trust, risk, surveillance and cyber warfare.
I shall be ordering a copy of his new book Liars and Outliers. It’s about trust, a subject I find both relevant and fascinating. Trust is a phenomenon that few security researchers seem to understand. The problem is that it’s a means to an end, and makes little sense when studied in isolation from its purpose…
Liars & Outliers, o cómo se articula la confianza
Liars & Outliers es el nuevo libro de Bruce Schneier que recibí hace unas semanas por cortesía de Wiley. Aunque el libro sale a la venta en los próximos días, ya se puede pedir en pre-order y ciertamente si ya han leído otros libros de Schneier, seguramente no se arrepentirán de buscar este Liars & outliers. Pero antes de que nadie se aburra, vamos con algo de chicha sobre el libro 🙂
Schneier, como es habitual, construye un ensayo sólido al que dota de un relato y un hilo conductor que te va desglosando en capítulos-píldora de unas 20 páginas. Por hacer un símil rápido, y salvando las (enormes) distancias, …
Liars and Outliers: Thoughts on Societal Trust in Bruce Schneier’s New Book
The subtitle of Liars and Outliers is “Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive,” and it’s a good explanation of the author’s direction. He looks at 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.
But how do we build these trust models? And what do we do when someone cheats us? Schneier labels those who don’t cooperate in society as ‘defectors’ because they go against the rules. Normally we might associate their behavior with lying, cheating, and stealing, but in Schneier’s model, defectors can play a role in changing societies that are unjust, such as with slavery or apartheid. I think this approach may confuse the issue somewhat, since the main point of the book is trust in a commercial sense—can you safely do business with this person or company?…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.