Bruce Schneier on how to think about security

Published Wednesday, 17 April 2002 2:27AM CST by in Technology

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If Bruce Schneierisn’t the best computer security expert in the United States, he’s certainly in the top 10. The current issue of his Crypto-Gram newsletter has completely changed the way I look at and think about security issues. Schneier proposes a simple 5-step analysis that can be used to evaluate any security measure, computer related or not:

  1. What problem does the security measure solve?
  2. How well does the security measure solve the problem?
  3. What other security problems does the measure cause?
  4. What are the costs of the security measure?
  5. Given the answers to steps two through four, is the security measure worth the costs?

Using this analysis shines a painfully bright light on the security measures undertaken by the United States government since 11 September 2001 and on those proposed since.

Very highly recommended.

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