Quote

I am regularly asked what the average Internet user can do to ensure his security. My first answer is usually 'Nothing you're screwed'.

Bruce Schneier

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Bruce Schneier
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: January 15
Computer Scientist
Cryptographer
Mathematician
Physicist
Writer
New York City
New York
Answers
Users
Firsts
Average
Nothing
Computer
First
Answer
Euthanasia
Asked
User
Usually
Screwed
Internet
Regularly
Security
Ensure

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Choosing providers is not a choice between surveillance/not it's just choosing which feudal lord gets to spy on you.
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It's frustrating terrorism is rare and largely ineffectual, yet we regularly magnify the effects of both their successes and failures by terrorizing ourselves.
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The question to ask when you look at security is not whether this makes us safer, but whether it's worth the trade-off.
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Given the credible estimate that we've spent $1 trillion on anti-terrorism security
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When a big company lays you off, they often give you a year's salary to 'go pursue a dream.' If you're stupid, you panic and get another job. If you're smart, you take the money and use the time to figure out what you want to do next.
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Terrorism is a crime against the mind. We win by refusing fear.
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But in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don't have to be competent to cause terror. All you need to do is start plotting an attack and - regardless of whether or not you have a viable plan, weapons or even the faintest clue - the media will aid you in terrorizing the entire population.
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There's an entire flight simulator hidden in every copy of Microsoft Excel 97.
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If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security.
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If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology.
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Privacy is a fundamental human need.
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People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.
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Surveillance is the business model of the Internet.
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It doesn't matter how good the card is if the issuance process is flawed.
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It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
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Cryptography products may be declared illegal, but the information will never be
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Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.
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Microsoft made a big deal about Windows NT getting a C2 security rating. They were much less forthcoming with the fact that this rating only applied if the computer was not attached to a network and had no network card, and had its floppy drive epoxied shut, and was running on a Compaq 386. Solaris's C2 rating was just as silly.
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There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files.
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Air travel survived decades of terrorism, including attacks which resulted in the deaths of everyone on the plane. It survived 9/11. It'll survive the next successful attack. The only real worry is that we'll scare ourselves into making air travel so onerous that we won't fly anymore.
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