Quotes from Bruce Schneier

Think of your existing power as the exponent in an equation that determines the value of information. The more power you have, the more additional power you derive from the new data.

Surveillance of power is one of the most important ways to ensure that power does not abuse its status. But, of course, power does not like to be watched.

There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files.

People don't understand computers. Computers are magical boxes that do things. People believe what computers tell them.

Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

The more technological a society is, the greater the security gap is.

Secret courts making secret rulings on secret laws, and companies flagrantly lying to consumers about the insecurity of their products and services, undermine the very foundations of our society.

It's frustrating; terrorism is rare and largely ineffectual, yet we regularly magnify the effects of both their successes and failures by terrorizing ourselves.

You can't defend. You can't prevent. The only thing you can do is detect and respond.

It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.

The user's going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.

Something that looks like a protocol but does not accomplish a task is not a protocol—it's a waste of time.

Air travel survived decades of terrorism, including attacks which resulted in the deaths of everyone on the plane. It survived 9/11. It'll survive the next successful attack. The only real worry is that we'll scare ourselves into making air travel so onerous that we won't fly anymore.

We no longer know whom to trust. This is the greatest damage the NSA has done to the Internet, and will be the hardest to fix.

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy our country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage.

If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology.

Air travel survived decades of terrorism, including attacks which resulted in the deaths of everyone on the plane. It survived 9/11. It'll survive the next successful attack. The only real worry is that we'll scare ourselves into making air travel so onerous that we won't fly anymore.

I am regularly asked what the average Internet user can do to ensure his security. My first answer is usually 'Nothing you're screwed'.

People don't understand computers. Computers are magical boxes that do things. People believe what computers tell them.

People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems

We kill people based on metadata.

If something is free, you're not the customer; you're the product.

Data is the pollution problem of the information age, and protecting privacy is the environmental challenge.

One hundred years ago, everyone could have personal privacy. You and your friend could walk into an empty field, look around to see that no one else was nearby, and have a level of privacy that has forever been lost. As Whitfield Diffie has said: "No right of private conversation was enumerated in the Constitution. I don't suppose it occurred to anyone at the time that it could be prevented