WW: Bruce Schneier on why security can't work

Fri Mar 15 13:53:24 UTC 2013

> And there you have it :)
> 
> Security obviously works  thus far,   in the sense, that so far,
> government has been preserved -- there is not total chaos, in at least
> most of the world,  and people do not doubt if their life or property
> will still exist the next day.
> 

I'm not sure I would even put "government has been preserved" on the list of considerations for the success or failure of security.

I would put "law and order", "governance and/or the process of governance" on the list, but especially in a post-911 world, the US Government has departed from those ideals to varying degrees.

Do not get me wrong, I am not advocating radical revolution or saying that we should tear down the existing institutions. Merely that we should be careful in our default use of terminology and focus on what we really want to preserve. Ideally, we can restore the US government to its proper (and limited) function. (That does not mean eliminating government services and making it small enough to fit in our bedrooms, either.)

I'm not supporting any of the current Washington agendas and parties. I'm fed up with all of them at this point and unless they start working on solving problems instead of posturing all the time, I won't be supporting ANY incumbents.

> Abusing new technology faster doesn't trump the extreme smallness of
> the numbers of truly bad actors,  who have irrational thinking,  would
> like to end civilization,  and the intersection between those and
> those who have a viable method that would work + the right
> resources/skill  available,  and a reasonable chance of success....
> astronomically small

The bottom line is that any system of laws and/or governance depends entirely on voluntary compliance by the majority of the actors. 

> If in a few decades,  there is a  0.1%    chance per decade of a
> script kiddie ending civilization,   I think we've got few reasonable
> alternatives but to accept that risk and hope for the best :)

On the other hand, I will hold up the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act and the T.S.A. as proof that we are rather adept at exploring and sometimes acting on the unreasonable alternatives.

Owen