IP: more on How to own the Internetin your pare time

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 17:23:16 
To: farber () cis upenn edu, ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com
Subject: Re: IP: more on  How to own the Internetin your  pare time

Here's some new thinking on security.  I'm serious - it's not a joke - but 
perhaps a starting point.

Actual threats increase proportional to the number of enemies creating them 
and the resources needed to execute them.

Potential threats increase proportional to the number of people imagining them.

We only need to stop the actual threats.

However, our investment in threat management tends to track potential 
threats, which can grow without bound:

Potential threats grow when secrecy creates unknowability.

An open/transparent world reduces imagination of potential threats.   It 
also increases the reliability of assessing actual threats.

Which tends to synergize with Moynihan's sound-bite: "Secrecy is for losers".

So here's a radical proposal:  openly publish most (if not all) of the 
information collected by the CIA, NSA, ... to public inspection.   Figure 
out how to avoid compromising sources where needed, but get all of it out, 
efficiently.  Use the Internet, because it scales, rather than TV, print, 
and Radio, which don't.

This will enable all of civil society to become outsourcers of the costly 
mundane details of threat management, leaving the difficult and specialized 
functions to experts with specialized resources.

In this world, terrorist's ability to use the leverage of "unknown" threats 
and rampant paranoia of their targets to amplify their meager efforts would 
be dramatically reduced.

Can we completely eliminate risks or threats?   Recognizing that we cannot 
is the first step to managing them.

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