Click Here to Kill Everybody

Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected world

Bruce Schneier 2018 Multc 005.8 SCH

I wanted to like this book more. It repeatedly (repeatedly repeatedly) mentions the same hacks, but does not flesh them out with either a technical or a human story. Schneier writes about how security effort is short-term unprofitable, Individuals have been harmed by poor security. Get permission to tell individual stories, of users, vendors, creators, even investors and CEOs. Put faces on the issues.

Schneier suggests government interventions, but the government works for the voters, and communicates to them via the media ... mostly reporters clueless about technology. Both voters and politicians focus more on stories than human interest than policy. Create compelling stories.

Help non-technical readers understand the processes, don't just label them. Citizens have some understanding of airline safety - we've travelled on planes, we've seen airports and runways and takeoffs and landings, we've seen gory photos of crashes. Where are the memorable images about the Equifax hack?

I use computers a lot, but for creation and computing, in fewer ways than most. If I don't understand how something can hurt me, I don't use it. If the security process was was transparent and easy to understand, I might use Bluetooth and Zigbee and "smart phones" (dodopaddles) and internet-connected appliances and "smart" vehicles, and enable wifi in my home. If I trusted modern feature-rich and interconnected products, I might buy new rather than maintain and repair "trailing edge" products. Untrustworthy security costs some sales, and a properly managed "vulnerability warning" campaign could cost MANY sales.

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