December 05, 2007

Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions. Tech security John-the-Baptist Bruce Schneier efficiently plows through a long list of reader questions related to online security and the future of Guarding Your Shit.

Chock full of links to his blog, newsletter, and essays and op-ed pieces, it provides a good primer to what you're not doing to protect your data but should, the future of identity and identification, and why you shouldn't trust governments or private corporations to guard your data. Follow all the links, and you could spend the rest of the day online. Not that you won't. Schneier's work is old hat to techies, but this Q&A provides a good entry point for the rest of you who don't know about him and actually care about protecting your computer, money, and identity. Need a reason to care? Think you're safe? Read this.

posted by middleclasstool 16 years ago
  • The voice of one crying in the wilderness, write ye down your passwords, make your data encrypted. Bruce 1:3
  • I recently read something by him and I'm slowly but surely changing all my financial passwords because of it. I'm really pissed because one of my credit cards, which shall remain nameless, won't let me use a password that's as long as I like. And mine's not that long.
  • Nice FPP. Lots to dig into here. Would've been better with a YouTube link, though.
  • And, the award for Most Beaten Dead Horse goes to...
  • ..." between 1 million and 50 million computers have been infected..." Well, that narrows it down.
  • The article on Identity Theft by Bruce that this links to is B.S. He claims that once Financial Institutions bear most of the costs of identity theft, a magical solution to the problem will arise out of profit incentive. Financial Institutions do already bear the cost of most identity theft. And he has no idea what this vague magic solution will be, but it should have arrived by now according to his theory. Why do I read these threads and get all fired up, anyway?
  • Because you are a sultry, wicked-hot wench with multi-megawatt passions that fuel the inevitable, fiery cauldron of questionable individual fiduciary security positions that vex and plague us all. That, and you have nicely rounded hooters.
  • Well, that narrows it down. That's sort of the point. The only worse thing than knowing how bad it is is not knowing how bad it is. When the virus is so good at hiding that you can't whittle your numbers down better than that, indications are a whole lot of people are fucked.