http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/11/gchq-national-security-technology
> I think there’s a good case to be made for security as an exercise in public > health. It sounds weird at first, but the parallels are fascinating and deep > and instructive. > > Last year, when I finished that talk in Seattle, a talk about all the ways > that insecure computers put us all at risk, a woman in the audience put up > her hand and said, “Well, you’ve scared the hell out of me. Now what do I do? > How do I make my computers secure?” > > And I had to answer: “You can’t. No one of us can. I was a systems > administrator 15 years ago. That means that I’m barely qualified to plug in a > WiFi router today. I can’t make my devices secure and neither can you. Not > when our governments are buying up information about flaws in our computers > and weaponising them as part of their crime-fighting and anti-terrorism > strategies. Not when it is illegal to tell people if there are flaws in their > computers, where such a disclosure might compromise someone’s anti-copying > strategy. ... > Because when it comes to public health, individual action only gets you so > far. It doesn’t matter how good your water is, if your neighbour’s water > gives him cholera, there’s a good chance you’ll get cholera, too. And even if > you stay healthy, you’re not going to have a very good time of it when > everyone else in your country is striken and has taken to their beds. > > If you discovered that your government was hoarding information about > water-borne parasites instead of trying to eradicate them; if you discovered > that they were more interested in weaponising typhus than they were in curing > it, you would demand that your government treat your water-supply with the > gravitas and seriousness that it is due. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
