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Monday, May 03, 2004 |
 Bruce Schneier (inventor of Blowfish encryption) on national security:
There are reasons you do security things other than security. I'm a security professional, so I tend to discount those nonsecurity issues, but peace of mind is very important. I call it security theater. It doesn't actually do any good, but it makes people feel better. It's an important psychological thing... It (the money spent on airline security) made people feel better, it helped our economy. The right question is not whether this does any good but whether the trade-off is worth it.
4:21:30 PM 
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Economist. China and Japan compete for oil security.
12:31:49 PM
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The US repeats its warning to the 35,000 US workers in Saudi Arabia: The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer travel to Saudi Arabia. Private American citizens currently in Saudi Arabia are strongly urged to depart. NOTE: a full withdrawl would be devastating to Saudi Arabia on numerous levels (from health care to oil production).
11:28:01 AM
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US Oil System Vulnerabilities. The US domestic oil system is overly centralized and reliant on antiquated technology. Before terrorists complete their shift to infrastructure attacks, we need to make some changes.
11:13:21 AM
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CACI, a private military company that provides security and intelligence workers to the US military (including interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison), is conducting a probe of their employee in Iraq. I had a look at CACIs site and was a little disturbed by what I found (they have pulled many of their listings for employment last night -- so I can't link). The only qualifications for a senior counter-terrorist intelligence analyst, one that the US military pays well over one hundred thousand $$ for (my estimate based on experience in military contacting), is a high school diploma and a security clearance. Is this all the qualifications necessary for being a counter-terrorism analyst??? This isn't an isolated instance, my review of the field shows that problems like this are rampant (low pay, limited qualifications, etc.). Fighting terrorism is 90% intelligence and 10% action (a total reversal of traditional ratios). If this is the best our government can do, we are in for a world of hurt. We desperately need high quality minds in the intelligence business. I am growing more convince that the security clearance process, the government hiring/promotion process, and information silos are overwhelming our ability to get even a marginally adequate level of intelligence needed to fight terrorism. Wow, this is depressing. We will continue to lose the war on terrorism until we fix our intelligence system.
10:46:57 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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