Encryption Expert Teaches Security

Bruce Schneier poses in the living room of his south Minneapolis home, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, where he says he works from his sofa. Schneier, a computer encryption expert turned all-purpose security guru, describes his life as surreal. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt) (Ann Heisenfelt - AP)

In other words, all the technical sophistication in the world can lock data from prying eyes, but if people leave the keys in the open, not much security results.

Since then, Schneier has been on his mission to explain that security is a complex system unlikely to be saved by technology alone.

Some commentary seems to emanate from him almost daily, on top of his duties as chief technical officer for Counterpane Internet Security Inc., a network monitoring company he co-founded. He and his wife, Karen Cooper, also find time to contribute restaurant reviews to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Schneier has repeatedly said "we are one attack away from a police state," and says such a civil-liberties crackdown would be even more likely under a Democratic administration. That is from the same school of thought that only an ardent anticommunist like Richard Nixon could get away with engaging with Red China in the 1970s.

But beneath Schneier's someday-I'll-say-I-told-you-so realism is a streak of optimism. He fully expects to change people's minds about the need for cost-effectiveness rather than showmanship in security.

"Eventually we will all come to our senses about security," he says. "I think it's 10 to 20 years. A generation."

A skeptic demurs. Isn't it an insoluble aspect of human nature to be greatly governed by our fears, even when we know they're irrational? Most people know driving is more dangerous than flying, but few of us grip the armrests when a car pulls out of the garage.

"That is what reason is about. That's the beauty of being human," Schneier responds. Being afraid of something and doing it anyway, he contends, "that's what courage actually is."

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On the Net:

Schneier's blog: http://www.schneier.com/blog

A tongue-in-cheek geek tribute to Schneier:

http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts