Once again, Schneier provides essential reading

[ciphergoth]

I strongly recommend everyone at least skim through this, especially the "Protecting Privacy and Liberty" section; we're going to hear a lot of nonsense about this sort of thing in the near future.

Crypto-Gram Newsletter Special Edition
Bruce Schneier, September 30, 2001

This is a special issue of Crypto-Gram, devoted to the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath.

Please distribute this issue widely.

[...] Security and privacy are not two sides of a teeter-totter. This association is simplistic and largely fallacious. It's easy and fast, but less effective, to increase security by taking away liberty. However, the best ways to increase security are not at the expense of privacy and liberty.

It's easy to refute the notion that all security comes at the expense of liberty. Arming pilots, reinforcing cockpit doors, and teaching flight attendants karate are all examples of security measures that have no effect on individual privacy or liberties. So are better authentication of airport maintenance workers, or dead-man switches that force planes to automatically land at the closest airport, or armed air marshals traveling on flights.

Liberty-depriving security measures are most often found when system designers failed to take security into account from the beginning. They're Band-aids, and evidence of bad security planning. When security is designed into a system, it can work without forcing people to give up their freedoms.

http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0109a.html#8

Comments

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

Not sure about self landing plane, tho. Especially since "Safe mode disables on touchdown so the pilot can raise flaps, put on the brakes, and reduce the throttle." So terorists can either take off again immediately or let the plane carry on to plough into airport buildings...

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Fly-from-ground with autopilot backup sounds more plausible, but apparently there's no way in hell that could be retrofitted to ordinary planes.

threats to liberty

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

Excellent analysis. Most of the ill-thought out and frankly dangerous measures being proposed in the wake of the crisis are as sensible as shutting the stable door to keep the fox out of the hen house (and in some cases slaughtering the plough horse and the pigs as well, in order to achieve the same end).

I think there's three things going on here. First is a desire by politicians to appear tough and do _something_, what that something is doesn't matter as long as it looks good. Second is panic, they don't know what to do, and don't actually understand the issues surrounding, and implications of their actions. This leads on to a third factor: the exploitation of this ignorance, panic and stupidity both among the public and decision makers, by the secret state and various jumped up authoritarian twits in cahoots with them, in order to push through dangerous laws that they have long wanted on the nod. This is precisely what I expected when the catastrophe first occurred.

I've been pleased to see that a cross-party campaign against ID cards has already started. The pressure must be kept up. If we lose one bit of freedom because of this, it's a victory for the bad guys.

Soph xxx