Security expert Bruce Schneier has blogged about The Chaser‘s APEC security breach — which means it’s just been read by most of the switched-on security professionals on the planet. “Social engineering” attacks like this are easy, he says. You just have to look like you fit in. One commenter points out that this goes beyond “security theatre” into “security opera”.
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I’ve unsubtly hinted at this before, but the mainstream media doesn’t seem to run this angle: The “terrorist” “bombings” in the UK just now were completely half-arsed and simply don’t deserve the attention they’re getting — unless it’s about having a really good belly-laugh.
Bruce Schneier, ever the clear-thinker about these issues, says it in his headline:
Terrorist Special Olympics in the UK
First London and then Glasgow. Who are these idiots? Is there a Special Olympics for terrorists going on in the UK this week?
Two points about Glasgow:
One, airport security worked. And two, putting a propane tank into a car and driving into a building at high speed is the sort of thing that only works in old episodes of The A Team. On television, you get a massive, extensive explosion. In real life, you only get a small localized fire.
I am particularly pleased with the reaction from the Scots, which is measured and reasonable. No one was hurt; no need to panic. Life goes on.
But don’t let this reality disturb the paranoid Fox News uberreality in which we live. Lo! There is grainy vision of a burning car. Lo! There are foreign men with funny names and dark skin. Lo! We raid their homes and find “religious literature”…
Hang on! Did I miss the day “religious literature” became suspicious?
Bruce Schneier’s essay on that laughable plan to blow up JFK (the airport, not the dead president) makes an important point about that:
Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots — and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse — is wrong.
Indeed.
And let’s repeat the point. You’re far more likely to be killed by lightning or by drowning in your own bathtub than being killed by a terrorist.
Of all the current corporate buzzwords, “space” shits me the most. I’ve been meaning to write about it, but web pioneer Marc Andreessen got there first:
There is no such thing as a “space”.
There is such a thing as a market — that’s a group of people who will directly or indirectly pay money for something.
There is such a thing as a product — that’s an offering of a new kind of good or service that is brought to a market.
There is such a thing as a company — that’s an organized business entity that brings a product to a market.
Marc’s article goes on to explain why there’s no such thing as “Web 2.0″ either — in fact that’s its main thrust. It’s worth reading.
Hell, his entire blog is worth reading.
On the other hand, William Shakespeare is worth reading too.
So are P J O’Rourke, Daniel Petre, George Orwell, David Marr, John Birmingham, James Burke, George Lakoff, Brian Eno, Lao Tsu, Sherry Turkle, Steven Levy, Neal Stephenson, Umberto Eco, Richard Watts, Paul Graham, Bruce Schneier, Father Bob Maguire, Matt Ridley, Daniel Dennett, Zern Liew, Steven Levitt… but you’ve just got to draw the line somewhere!
“Big Brother isn’t what he used to be,” says security expert Bruce Schneier — and he’s not taking about the TV show. “Today’s information society looks nothing like Orwell’s world.”
A fascinating essay with follow-up comments — and something I’m bound to write more about soon. Thanks for the pointer, Zhasper.
My vote for “Prank of the Month” (well, last month) goes to the New York-based Improv Everywhere crew for flooding a Best Buy department store with around 80 people dressed almost like their staff.
The full report on this prank shows how the store management couldn’t cope — they didn’t like it, and people get nervous when confronted with something “different”.
It’s also interesting reading the comments on Bruce Schneier’s write-up of this event, where so many commenters fail to see the difference between a “threat to the store” and a “threat to the perceived authority of the store managers”.
Information security expert Bruce Schneier looks at the Future of Privacy in this article from his Crypto-Gram Newsletter.
Two snippets:
The pervasiveness of computers has resulted in the almost constant surveillance of everyone, with profound implications for our society and our freedoms. Corporations and the police are both using this new trove of surveillance data. We as a society need to understand the technological trends and discuss their implications. If we ignore the problem and leave it to the “market,” we’ll all find that we have almost no privacy left…
Most of us are happy to give out personal information in exchange for specific services. What we object to is the surreptitious collection of personal information, and the secondary use of information once it’s collected: the buying and selling of our information behind our back.
Bruce writes coherently — and presumably knows more than we know he knows. His books are well worth a read too.
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