We better be sure we develop systems that manage potential threats in ways that is not overly disruptive to "normal" activities, and do not alienate lots of people in the process, for instance, as do some MPD policing in some neighborhoods.
Here are two different perspectives on this. First is an articles in the September Atlantic about local cryptography guru Bruce Schneier. From the article: "Indeed, [Schneier] regards the national push for a high-tech salve for security anxieties as a reprise of his own early and erroneous beliefs about the transforming power of strong crypto. The new technologies have enormous capacities, but their advocates have not realized that the most critical aspect of a security measure is not how well it works but how well it fails...." "To forestall attacks, security systems need to be small-scale, redundant, and compartmentalized. Rather than large, sweeping programs, they should be carefully crafted mosaics, each piece aimed at a specific weakness. The federal government and the airlines are spending millions of dollars, Schneier points out, on systems that screen every passenger to keep knives and weapons out of planes. But what matters most is keeping dangerous passengers out of airline cockpits, which can be accomplished by reinforcing the door....." "A couple of months after September 11, [author Charles C Mann said,] I flew from Seattle to Los Angeles to meet Schneier. As I was checking in at Sea-Tac Airport, someone ran through the metal detector and disappeared onto the little subway that runs among the terminals. Although the authorities quickly identified the miscreant, a concession stand worker, they still had to empty all the terminals and re-screen everyone in the airport, including passengers who had already boarded planes....."What a mess," Schneier said. The problem with airport security, you know, is that it fails badly." (See article at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/09/mann.htm ) On a funny but serious note, quickly see the Don Wright cartoon in Tuesday's Palm Beach Post--it says a lot: http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/opinion/wright_gallerytue.html Alan Shilepsky Downtown Mpls _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
