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Bruce Schneir is a security guru, he tackles the problems of security from the small to the large: personal safety, crime, corporate security, national security… Bruce is known for critiquing the way Homeland Security is trying to keep the States safe from terrorist attacks. He claims that most of the multi billion dollar security market is just one big waste of money. He calls it the business of Security Theater.
The guru explains it simply by showing some examples of airport security measures. “because some guy had the idea to hide a bomb in his shoe we all need to take off our shoes before we want to enter a plane, we are lucky that guy didn’t put it in his underwear”

The thing is -he tells us- that Homeland Security agents are just like Hollywood writers. They create a movie plot threat, it’s a terrorist threat they (Homeland security) imagine form A-Z, “they can do this that way and than they do that to…” it’s a very simple way of trying to prevent terrorist attacks, but not a good one because if the bad guy changes one small detail the whole plan becomes worthless.
These movie plot threads are the reason airports have these annoying security protocols. These things don’t make things more safe, they only give us the illusion that we are safe. What if someone uses snakes to hijack a plane, or a sony battery?
A good tip not to get annoyed by these useless protocols is by playing along, imagine that you are in one of the movie plot treats, but keep in mind it’s fiction. Look at it like if it was a real life RPG.

Another way to prevent attacks is by data mining just like the NSA wire tapping. You would think that this is more efficient because it focuses on real conversations between real people planning stuff, it doesn’t. NYtimes reported that the NSA gets 1000 leads per month out of this Echelon thing, all those leads have proven to be false alarms. FBI agents cost about 200.000 dollar per year and most of their time is spend by hunting these phantoms, not very cost efficient.

So what is the answer for complete safety? According to Bruce Shneir it’s just making sure that others wouldn’t have a reason to attack. The message is simple, don’t get paranoid, make love and don’t make enemy’s…

Via Popsci podcast ep 14 (a damn good podcast series, try it!)
Picture by Nedrichards