[LINK] Schneier in the SMH
Roger Clarke
Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Fri Jan 30 08:47:43 AEDT 2009
Don't let terrorists strip us of our technological rights
Date: January 30 2009
SMH OpEd piece, reprint from The Guardian
Bruce Schneier
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2009/01/29/1232818630291.html
It regularly comes as a surprise to people that our own
infrastructure can be used against us. And in the wake of terrorist
attacks or plots, there are fear-induced calls to ban, disrupt or
control that infrastructure. According to officials investigating the
Mumbai attacks, the terrorists used Google Earth to help find their
way around. In 2007, Google Earth images of British military bases
were found in the homes of Iraqi insurgents.
Such incidents have led many governments to demand that Google
removes or blurs images of sensitive locations: military bases,
nuclear reactors, government buildings, and so on.
This is not the only way our information technology helps terrorists.
Last year, a US Army intelligence report worried that terrorists
could plan their attacks using Twitter and there are unconfirmed
reports that the Mumbai terrorists read the Twitter feeds about their
attacks to get real-time information they could use.
British intelligence is worried terrorists might use services such as
Skype to communicate. Terrorists may also use "virtual world"
websites such as Second Life and computer games such as World Of
Warcraft to train. We know they use websites to spread their message
and possibly even to recruit.
All of this is exacerbated by open-wireless access, which has been
labelled a tool for terrorists and the object of attempted bans.
Mobile phone networks help terrorists, too. The Mumbai terrorists
used them to communicate with each other. This has led some cities,
including London, to propose turning off mobile phone coverage in the
event of a terrorist attack.
Let us all stop and take a deep breath.
By its very nature, communications infrastructure can be used to plan
both legal and illegal activities, and it is generally impossible to
tell which is which. When I send and receive email, it looks exactly
the same as a terrorist doing the same thing. To the mobile phone
network, a call from one terrorist to another looks exactly the same
as a mobile phone call from one victim to another. Any attempt to ban
or limit infrastructure affects everybody.
If India bans Google Earth, a future terrorist will not be able to
use it to plan; nor will anybody else. Likewise open-wireless
networks which are useful for many positive reasons. Terrorist
attacks are rare, and it is almost always a bad trade-off to deny
society the benefits of technology just because the bad guys might
use it too.
Communications infrastructure is especially valuable during a terrorist attack.
Twitter was the best way for people to get real-time information
about the attacks in Mumbai. A lack of communications during a
terrorist attack - for everyone, not just the terrorists - would
increase the level of terror and could even increase the body count.
Information lessens fear and makes people safer.
None of this is new. Criminals have used telephones and mobile phones
since they were invented. Drug smugglers use aircraft and boats,
radios and satellite phones. Bank robbers have long used cars and
motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. I have not
seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as
well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank
bottled water, and breathed the air.
Society survives all of this because the good uses of infrastructure
far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are - by and
large - small and pedestrian and the bad uses are rare and
spectacular. And while terrorism turns society's very infrastructure
against itself, we only harm ourselves by dismantling that
infrastructure in response - just as we would if we banned cars
because bank robbers used them too.
Bruce Schneier is BT's chief security technology officer and the
author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security In An
Uncertain World. This is an edited version of a column that first
appeared in The Guardian.
--
Roger Clarke http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre Uni of NSW
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