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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.

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
Effects
Magnify
Regularly
Successes
Frustrating
Largely
Failures
Rare
Terrorizing
Terrorism
Ineffectual

More quotes by Bruce Schneier

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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.
Bruce Schneier
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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.
Bruce Schneier
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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.
Bruce Schneier
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Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.
Bruce Schneier
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Secret courts making secret rulings on secret laws, and companies flagrantly lying to consumers about the insecurity of their products and services, undermine the very foundations of our society.
Bruce Schneier
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ID can be hijacked, and cards can be faked. All of the 9/11 terrorists had fake IDs, yet they still got on the planes. If the British national ID card can't be faked, it will be the first on the planet.
Bruce Schneier
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The fundamental driver in computer security, in all of the computer industry, is economics. That requires a lot of re-education for us security geeks.
Bruce Schneier
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Only amateurs attack machines professionals target people.
Bruce Schneier
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Cryptography products may be declared illegal, but the information will never be
Bruce Schneier
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The user's going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.
Bruce Schneier
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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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When my mother gets a prompt 'Do you want to download this?' she's going to say yes. It's disingenuous for Microsoft to give you all of these tools with which to hang yourself, and when you do, then say it's your fault.
Bruce Schneier
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People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.
Bruce Schneier
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This is not the internet the world needs, or the internet its creators envisioned. We need to take it back. And by we, I mean the engineering community.
Bruce Schneier
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More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk.
Bruce Schneier
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Think of your existing power as the exponent in an equation that determines the value of information. The more power you have, the more additional power you derive from the new data.
Bruce Schneier
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Terrorism is a crime against the mind. We win by refusing fear.
Bruce Schneier
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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.
Bruce Schneier
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It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
Bruce Schneier
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A colleague once told me that the world was full of bad security systems designed by people who read Applied Cryptography
Bruce Schneier