Boil Before Drinking » consumer protection http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com Watching... Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:46:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Computer Security Q&A With Bruce Schneier http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com/2007/12/computer-security-qa-with-bruce-schneier.html http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com/2007/12/computer-security-qa-with-bruce-schneier.html#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:38:00 +0000 The Runs http://boilbeforedrinking.com/163/computer-security-qa-with-bruce-schneier/ I finally caught up with my Freakonomics Blog reading. I found the Q&A session with security guru Bruce Schneier to be the most interesting of the last 2 weeks. He answered a ton of questions, and gave very detailed responses, with lots of supplementary links. This is definitely not dry, techie/hacker security talk – Bruce answers many of the question from a socio-economic point of view that I found to be very enlightening. Check it out.
Q: All ethics aside, do you think you could make more money obtaining sensitive information about high net worth individuals and using blackmail/extortion to get money from them, instead of writing books, founding companies, etc.?

A: Basically, you’re asking if crime pays. Most of the time, it doesn’t, and the problem is the different risk characteristics. If I make a computer security mistake — in a book, for a consulting client, at BT — it’s a mistake. It might be expensive, but I learn from it and move on. As a criminal, a mistake likely means jail time — time I can’t spend earning my criminal living. For this reason, it’s hard to improve as a criminal. And this is why there are more criminal masterminds in the movies than in real life.

Freakonomics Blog: Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions

]]> http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com/2007/12/computer-security-qa-with-bruce-schneier.html/feed 0 Fight the EULA http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com/2007/11/fight-the-eula.html http://www.boilbeforedrinking.com/2007/11/fight-the-eula.html#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:38:00 +0000 Brother Greg http://boilbeforedrinking.com/139/fight-the-eula/
By agreeing to these terms the end user agrees to donate a kidney whenever asked and name all their children after me.
Do you accept (Yes) (Yes)
A good piece on the battle with End User Licensing Agreements, how the internet has become the perfect forum for the abuse of consumers by eliminating their traditional consumer protections and ability to negotiate.

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