specialist, and writer. He is the author of several books on general security
topics, computer security
and cryptography
, and is the founder and chief technology officer of BT Managed Security Solutions, formerly Counterpane Internet Security, Inc. He received his master's degree in computer science from the American University
in Washington, D.C.
in 1988.
In 1994, Schneier published "Applied Cryptography", which details the design, use, and implementation of cryptographic algorithms. More recently he published "Cryptography Engineering", which is focused more on how to use cryptography in real systems and less on its internal design.
It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet.
More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk.
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 [in Internet Explorer] with which to hang yourself, and when you do, then say it's your fault.
Chaos is hard to create, even on the Internet. Here's an example. Go to Amazon.com. Buy a book without using SSL. Watch the total lack of chaos.
... if anyone thinks they can get an accurate picture of anyplace on the planet by reading news reports, they're sadly mistaken.
Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.
Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four.
I mean, the computer industry promises nothing. Did you ever read a shrink-wrapped license agreement? You should read one. It basically says, if this product deliberately kills your children, and we knew it would, and we decided not to tell you because it might harm sales, we´re not liable. I mean, it says stuff like that. They're absurd documents. You have no rights.