IP: more on Freidman: Webbed, Wired and Worried

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jamie McCarthy <jamie () mccarthy vg>
Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 17:54:52 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: Freidman: Webbed, Wired and Worried

> From the New York Times ---
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/opinion/26FRIE.html
>
> Webbed, Wired and Worried
> By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
[author of "The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization"]

> Ever since I learned that Mohamed Atta made his reservation
> for Sept. 11 using his laptop and the American Airlines Web
> site, and that several of his colleagues used
> Travelocity.com, I've been wondering how the entrepreneurs of
> Silicon Valley were looking at the 9/11 tragedy -- whether it
> was giving them any pause about the wired world they've been
> building and the assumptions they are building it upon.

This is stunningly thoughtless analysis.  Singing "Blame PGP" to the
tune of "Blame Canada" might set nodding the heads that don't
understand the issues -- but it's the same old song.  The terrorists
used cell phones as well as the internet, but nobody wants to junk
those.

As the last month's news has made clear, our government had plenty of
clues about last September's sneak attack -- the problem was putting
the pieces together, and telling the real pieces from the useless.
Clipper would have saved us?  Our intelligence was already backlogged
in reading decrypts, because we just didn't have enough agents who
could read foreign languages. [1]

And come on -- Travelocity may need to "authenticate your intent"
before it sells you a ticket?  There's a uselessly fascist little
universe wrapped up in that statement, and it's no safer than the one
we live in now.

If they hadn't bought tickets from Travelocity, they would have bought
them with credit cards over the phone.  Or from a travel agent.  Can
we please stop debating whether to close the wine cellar door after
the horse escapes the barn?

The one-sentence introduction to steganography was a classic touch --
of course, there is no real evidence that terrorists have ever used
it. [2]  I thought we learned seven months ago that our problem was
not a "web of technologies" from Silicon Valley -- it was box knives
from Office Depot, suicidal zealots from fanatic-in-training camps,
and 100-ton flying machines from Seattle.

The antidote to panicked silliness is to go reread Bruce Schneier's
Crypto-Gram from September 30th, which addresses these same issues
with maturity. [3]

[1] http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1001/101201b1.htm
    http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.language20sep20.story
    even http://english.pravda.ru/politics/2001/04/18/3754.html
[2] http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db103101.html
[3] http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0109a.html


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