Security Farce

Bruce Schneier, Eat Your Heart Out

Wikimedia Commons

In addition to his considerable fame for, among many other things, creating two finalist algorithms in the NSA symmetric cryptography competition, Bruce Schneier is also known as the coiner of “security theater,” an expression for security stuff that looks good until you, you know… stop to think.

Well, I can go Bruce Schneier one better. Security Farce reveals itself with no requirement for any thought whatsoever. Allow me to present genuine Security Farce, in a series of messages from my bank:

Your eyes do not deceive you. After “verifying” via a token sent to the exact same email as the notification, the “encrypted” email was sent in the clear to that same email!

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About the author

In 1981 Wes Kussmaul, working with friends at the MIT Joint Computer Facility, created the world’s first online encyclopedia, implemented using what he calls “the world’s worst business model.” Over the the next year the addition of social features transformed the encyclopedia into the more sustainable Delphi social network, which in 1993 was sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News America Corp.

Wes is the author of four books about bringing accountability with privacy back to social networks. One of those books caught the attention of a group at the ITU, a United Nations agency, while it was building a global PKI-based source of trust that resembled what the book advocated. Wes announced its re-launch as The City of Osmio in a 2008 presentation to the United Nations World Summit on Information Society. Wes is also the creator of Stoanova, an approach to Stoicism as it applies to problem solving.

Wes is the founder of The Authenticity Institute, a provider of a PKI platform to licensed Authenticity Enterprises, which may be seen here. The outcome of the work of those Authenticity Enterprises may be seen at Authentiverse.