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A radical not-so-new idea to stop the daily barrage of data breaches

Presented to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Red Hat Users’ Group, May 16, 2019.

When will we get tired enough of today’s daily barrage of data breaches to do something about it?

Alfred Charles Hobbs said it back in 1853 when he helped write a book that opened the secrets of mechanical locks. When people complained that Hobbs was revealing secrets, he pointed out that bad guys of his day already knew as much about mechanical locks as the best locksmiths.

If Alfred Charles Hobbs were alive today, he would be an internet security researcher. We need more people like him.

Today’s Bad guys already know how our security measures work, because they spend all day probing good guys and all night collaborating to improve the next day’s probes. When good guys keep it all secret, we only cripple ourselves. If we want to stop the daily barrage of data breaches, we need to get serious about collaborating.

Here is a link to the Wired Magazine article I mentioned in the presentation. Collaboration works. The bad guys are great at it. Good guys need to learn it.

The presentation above was aimed at organizations who deliver services over the internet. For some great cybersafety tips for consumers of internet services – and some you probably haven’t seen before – watch the presentation right here.

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