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Commonsense in the Crisis

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/wtc.html

Since the dreadful attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many companies and government agencies have been pushing security technologies that could cost a lot of money and, in some cases, seriously erode our liberties. Many of them won't do much, if anything, to make bin Laden's job harder; some of them he might even welcome.

We've been subjected to sales pitches for smart ID cards containing encoded fingerprints or iris scans, universal CCTV surveillance, government management of airport security, knowledge- based data mining of passenger lists, and significantly increased police control of Internet service providers. Some of the salesmen help propagate juicy urban myths, such as the claim that al-Qaida hides its electronic communications in pictures on pornographic web sites. The image of the mad mullah as cryptopornographer may be irresistible to a certain type of newspaper - but what's the truth?

I've been asked for comments on security engineering questions by quite a few journalists. Here, I gather together some of the points that I've made, and offer a few observations on why some of the common reactions to the attacks are not appropriate.

Introduction Historical Precedents Biometrics False Alarms versus Missed Alarms ID Cards Control of Cryptography Airport Security Economics and Security My book

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