Bruce Schneier Quotes

If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology.

Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.

The mantra of any good security engineer is: "Security is a not a product, but a process." It's more than designing strong cryptography into a system; it's designing the entire system such that all security measures, including cryptography, work together.

Security is a process, not a product.

More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk.

People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.

I am regularly asked what the average Internet user can do to ensure his security. My first answer is usually 'Nothing; you're screwed'.

The more technological a society is, the greater the security gap is.

Only amateurs attack machines; professionals target people.

History has taught us: never underestimate the amount of money, time, and effort someone will expend to thwart a security system. It's always better to assume the worst. Assume your adversaries are better than they are. Assume science and technology will soon be able to do things they cannot yet. Give yourself a margin for error. Give yourself more security than you need today. When the unexpected happens, you'll be glad you did.

Surveillance is the business model of the Internet.

Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

It is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics.

If someone steals your password, you can change it. But if someone steals your thumbprint, you can't get a new thumb. The failure modes are very different.

Hardware is easy to protect: lock it in a room, chain it to a desk, or buy a spare. Information poses more of a problem. It can exist in more than one place; be transported halfway across the planet in seconds; and be stolen without your knowledge.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you're Facebook's customer, you're not - you're the product.

There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files.

The user's going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.

Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break.

The whole notion of passwords is based on an oxymoron. The idea is to have a random string that is easy to remember. Unfortunately, if it's easy to remember, it's something nonrandom like 'Susan.' And if it's random, like 'r7U2*Qnp,' then it's not easy to remember.

For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that-either now or in the uncertain future-patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.

If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security.

Terrorists can only take my life. Only my government can take my freedom.

Computer security can simply be protecting your equipment and files from disgruntled employees, spies, and anything that goes bump in the night, but there is much more. Computer security helps ensure that your computers, networks, and peripherals work as expected all the time, and that your data is safe in the event of hard disk crash or a power failure resulting from an electrical storm. Computer security also makes sure no damage is done to your data and that no one is able to read it unless you want them to.

Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four.