Schneier, Bruce

Bruce Schneier wrote Applied Cryptography and either is very, very good at this stuff, or he has a magnificent staff. Either way, it works.
****       Secrets and Lies   Amazon
aka Digital Security in a Networked World
Nonfiction

Fear this.

Here, we are convinced that:

  • Everything we were told in Applied Cryptography probably doesn't matter since crypto is hardly ever going to be the weak link in a security system.
  • Anyone who seriously wants to hack you will be able to do so.
  • The government is not your friend.
  • The big problem is that with omputer kinds of crime and nastydoing, methods are trivially reproducible and reproduced, and once one Jimmy Valentine learns how to crack safes (or take over major military systems, or modify your IRS data, or ...) the it is both trivial and inevitable that every 8-year old who can run a script is suddenly as powerful and far more dangerous than Mr. Valentine.

    The problem is, he's right. A world-crippling hack may never come (does this sound like the nuclear weapon thing?) but most disturbing is the fact that it very easily could, and that the launch capability isn't limited to a select or trained few.