ciphergoth | Once again, Schneier provides essential reading (Reply)

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