Triple Play...

A book review in the Wall Street Journal (my favorite newspaper), written by Bruce Schneier (my favorite security commentator), about a book by Radley Balko (my favorite libertarian writer).  Sweet!

A Win for All of Us...

Bruce Schneier has joined the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

We all win with this one...

CyberWar?

Bruce Schneier has a fascinating opinion piece up on, of all places, CNN.  A teaser:

That's the key question: How much of what the United States is currently doing is an act of war by international definitions? Already we're accusing China of penetrating our systems in order to map "military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis." What PPD-20 and Snowden describe is much worse, and certainly China, and other countries, are doing the same.

All of this mapping of vulnerabilities and keeping them secret for offensive use makes the Internet less secure, and these pre-targeted, ready-to-unleash cyberweapons are destabalizing forces on international relationships. Rooting around other countries' networks, analyzing vulnerabilities, creating back doors, and leaving logic bombs could easily be construed as an act of war. And all it takes is one over-achieving national leader for this all to tumble into actual war.

It's time to stop the madness. Yes, our military needs to invest in cyberwar capabilities, but we also need international rules of cyberwar, more transparency from our own government on what we are and are not doing, international cooperation between governments and viable cyberweapons treaties. Yes, these are difficult. Yes, it's a long slow process. Yes, there won't be international consensus, certainly not in the beginning. But even with all of those problems, it's a better path to go down than the one we're on now.

The Wrong Lesson...

Bruce Schneier has a nice piece up on CNN (of all places!), all about drawing the wrong lessons from horrific events.  This was prompted by the Aurora shootings, of course...

Airport Security Debate: Bruce Schneier Kicks Butt!

The Economist has been hosting a debate on airport security for the past 10 days.  The motion:

This house believes that changes made to airport security since 9/11 have done more harm than good.

Defending the motion: Bruce Schneier, who should be well known to readers of this blog.
Opposing the motion: Kip Hawley, former TSA Administrator.

The debate has been lively.  For me, the arguments were familiar; the debate has essentially been held in a much less formal way over the past several years, through the many writings of Schneier, Hawley, and many others.  It's been a real pleasure to see Mr. Schneier make his arguments, though – he's got a real flair for exposition.

The debate is now over, though.  The motion has been carried: 89% of the votes were “aye”.  Mr. Schneier carried the day, rather dramatically.  Adam Barnes was the moderator.  An excerpt from his announcement of the winner:

Voters have roundly declared that the frustrations, the delays, the loss of liberty and the increase in fear that characterise their interactions with airport-security procedures vastly outweigh the good these procedures achieve. For some, indeed, the benefits are essentially non-existent: any sensible terrorist can find a work-around or choose a different point of attack, as Bruce Schneier explains. And so the widely expressed hope is that changes made to security in the (near) future will make the whole regime less reactive, more rational, more flexible and more intelligence-driven. The results of this debate suggest that these changes should be made with some urgency: passengers are angry.

Now if only our (insert your own epithets) Congresscritters would listen up.

Top 10...

Oh, this will make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the billions of dollars spent on the TSA, and (if you're a traveller) the inconvenience and indignity you put up with from them.  The TSA has compiled their “Top 10 Good Catches from 2011”.  Guess how many terrorists are on their list?  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  The list includes gems like this:

Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX). I’m just happy there weren’t any lions, tigers, and bears…

That's just great.  All those billions and all that irritation, and that's on their top 10 list?  Sheesh...

Tip of the hat to Bruce Schneier, who posted this on his excellent blog...