Industry legend dissects the basis for bad behaviour
Author and security expert Bruce Schneier is taking a close look into how human nature drives security policies.
Speaking at the 2011 RSA conference in San Francisco, Schneier suggested that some basic traits in the human brain and social structure could help to explain modern trends in cyber crime and security.
In what he classified as a ’dishonest minority,’ Schneier pointed out that in every social grouping, there exists a large set of people who will cooperate with one another and individuals who will thrive by dishonest behaviour.
As a society grows in numbers, however, more steps must be taken to limit dishonest behaviour. Eventually, this gives rise to security and creates more complexity in protecting people.
Additionally, Schneier said that with the growth in individuals and information, the risks from dishonest behaviour rises and creates new challenges.
"We all build security to protect against the subset of us that tries to subvert security," Schneier explained.
"As we need to be able to trust more and more strangers, more formal security is required."
The talk is part of an ongoing project for Schneier to study the basic factors that drive security. The lecture also comes as speakers and delegates at the conference are looking at new challenges that have arisen in security industries as users are increasingly interacting and sharing data on a social level.
Schneier cited multiple studies of sociology and psychology in suggesting that humans in general want to follow established laws and social rules. He noted the rise in online music stores and e-commerce services as alternatives to illegal file sharing.
"The genius of iTunes was that it made music easy to buy and not use file sharing," he said.
"It made it easy to obey the law, so more people did."
