Surveillance critic Bruce Schneier to leave post at BT

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/nsa-surveillance-critic-bruce-schneier-to-leave-post-at-bt/

by indy • 13 years ago

273 71 13 years ago

arstechnica.com

a3n• 13 years ago

A new career in journalism? I think Glenn Greenwald and Pierre Omidyar are hiring.

phaus2• 13 years ago

I'm not sure anyone wants to pay journalists what a world-class cryptographer makes.

dmix2• 13 years ago

Just like "business" skills, journalism should be something people develop on the side while still maintaining their primary work skillset (with industry-specific skills).

The big problem with journalism right now is the complete disconnect between the journalist and their understanding of the topic. Just look at every software or bitcoin article. This is largely because of the internet's turn-around speed requirements and low pay. They have no time to invest in learning about the topic.

The only way to save journalism is if we start contributing to it like we do OSS. Instead of paying people minimum wage and expecting quality results, we have people who contribute articles on the side.

But not just anybody writing (like blogging), but people who invest in learning how to write - working with full-time editors who manage the input and source writers.

samstave• 13 years ago

Just curious, what does a world class crypto make?

polymatter• 13 years ago

I'm not sure that matters much to a world-class cryptographer who has consistently spoken out on principle. Many many people want to do meaningful work that matters.

jonknee• 13 years ago

I'm not sure that matters to Pierre Omidyar. Bruce could help make sure the rest of the new media organization's systems are secure and also help train more traditional journalists on how to stay secure.

jMyles• 13 years ago

Are they? How can I get at them?

cenhyperion• 13 years ago

I don't know if they are, but you could probably email Glenn at the email/PGP key he provides on his twitter.

revelation• 13 years ago

I think this might be more likely than just a random hunch.

His columns and blog posts are certainly mass-appeal compatible.

midas0073• 13 years ago

Are they still in "stealth mode" (eg havent figured out a brand identity)?

rst• 13 years ago

They're still calling it "NewCo", if that's what you're asking. And some other not-so-minor details are also still either under development or under wraps, most notably the revenue model. But the general strategy has been announced: They want to be a full-service news organization, with everything from Greenwald's stuff to sports, and they want to trade on the personal brands of their top hires. And a lot of those hires have also been announced.

It seems a little odd to call this "stealth"; the more typical stealth startup has announced only its name, and none of that other stuff!

walshemj7• 13 years ago

As an Ex BT person I could see this coming a mile off with Bruces principled stand it could realistically only end this way.

And techcruch guys "ouster" are we channeling variety now!!!

bqe• 13 years ago

What sort of title is "security futurologist"?

evo_9• 13 years ago

Have you ever read his articles? I think that's as apt a title as any for Mr. Schneier.

pyrocat• 13 years ago

an awesome one

nkohari• 13 years ago

Once you reach a certain level of skill and experience, like Schneier has, you sort of outgrow titles. I'd say he's a researcher and an educator.

yeukhon• 13 years ago

Without doing any research on what he actually does at BT, that's probably between senior consultant/advisor and security evangelist, which he would speak about his cryptanalysis skill and be the go-to person when someone needs advise on security matter.

btbuildem• 13 years ago

"wizard"

znowi• 13 years ago

Good for him, I say. Opens up interesting opportunities.

Feel sad for BT employees though. With a company culture like this I don't think it's much of an attraction for smart, innovative folk.

walshemj7• 13 years ago

They need to follow Microsofts lead and get rid of stack ranking - That would increase morale by 100% at a stroke the CARE scores (BT's internal 360 feed back system) would go through the roof.

Brakenshire2• 13 years ago

I wouldn't have thought full stack ranking (i.e. actually firing the bottom x% each year) would be legal under British/European employment law.

Swannie2• 13 years ago

There are a lot of smart, innovative people at BT. But move above direct line managers and it's... not pretty.

MBO's cause quarterly firedrills/death marches to get "something out" - objective reached! In the resulting bloodbath it's the IC's who get hung out to dry.

Also there are just too many people, with too many kingdoms, trying to do too many things in slightly different ways. There are so many 30 year vets who have their domain, and will sabotage projects that threaten it. There are some good 30 year vets who drive change, but unsurprisingly they don't get very far, and are aware that they are about to leave things in the hands of 20 year people who gleefully look forward to inheriting a job for the next 15+ years... :-/

dchest• 13 years ago

"Schneier told The Register this evening of his departure: "This has nothing to do with the NSA. No, they [BT] weren't happy with me, but they knew that I am an independent thinker and they didn't try to muzzle me in any way. It's just time. I spent seven years at BT, and seven years at Counterpane Internet Security, Inc before BT bought us. It's past time for something new."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/16/bruce_schneier_leave...

csmuk• 13 years ago

I think it's a little more complicated than that.

If you had his background and the job in question, could you morally continue? No. If you were his employer and were involved in such things, could you continue employing him? No.

Nothing may have been said, even between Schneier and BT, but consider that every contract out there has a "don't badmouth your old employer" clause these days.

the_watcher• 13 years ago

I don't know. They were definitely at odds, but there was a mutual benefit to working together. Keep your enemies close comes to mind, as both he and his employer benefit from close contact with their opponents.

pcrh• 13 years ago

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that BT has introduced an opt-out filtering process for internet access.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25400009

017e075160b• 13 years ago

Walking away is the greatest form of rejection. Kudos Bruce.

windexh8er• 13 years ago

I think Schneier is a great advocate as of recent and has become a more inspiring security leader (compared to many who are just talking heads who have no real experience, comparatively). That being said, I feel he was a different person when Counterpane got bought out by BT. I happened to work for BT North America Professional Services at the time, which was ultimately purchased headcount from International Network Services to expand quickly. We had no access to Counterpane resources for the most part - although we were told to try and work some of the Counterpane product into consulting recommendations. I tried a few times to get involved with what Counterpane used to be, with the intent of trying to get some facetime with Schneier to really find out who he was (was very deterministic about finding a good mentor at the time). Long story short - BT was so fragmented internally to tie the name BT to Counterpane, or even Schneier was a joke. It was obvious after the first few months that BT bought Counterpane for the talking head (IMHO) which I still feel was true up until now. Schneier's name was worth more than the IP they bought, most likely. Sad state of affairs. BT was, and still today, has no interest in improving security within their own telecom products, but wanted to be very good at the emerging pentesting market (back in 2007'ish). They're no better than the PWCs of the world today - overpriced scanning services with no real meat, but they have a few key folks to make it look like they 'can'.

TL;DR Glad to see Schneier leaving. I thought it was hypocritical of him working for BT given his recent improvement in position publicly around the Snowden releases. I have renewed respect for him.

midas0073• 13 years ago

I seem to remember a PWC connection. Did PWC own @stake (what was l0pht) before it disappeared into Symantec? Or did their army of pen testers diffuse elsewhere?

lifeisstillgood• 13 years ago

It's indicative of an interesting, less corporate future.

As knowledge workers become more important, then it's the personal capabilities (and integrity) that matter most - and that's not something that can be applied across a 100,000 person "enterprise" or mandated in policy procedures.

We shall see smaller companies, and more fragmentation of working relationships - so protect that reputation and that brand folks !

tehwalrus4• 13 years ago

So weird that Schneier was working for BT - As a Brit, this is the company that you have to buy a phone line from to get broadband, and that then spams you to buy their broadband with snail mail glossy leaflets once a month.

prof_hobart3• 13 years ago

No you don't. I've had broadband for years without having any relationship with BT.

tehwalrus4• 13 years ago

but you had to pay for extra physical cables to be installed to your house right? and the same again every time you move?

jackweirdy• 13 years ago

+1 on the nope, I have Virgin Media. No installation fee & the line was run to the house years ago, we don't even have a BT phone line.

jdietrich• 13 years ago

Britain is an extremely competitive telecoms marketplace.

BT is broken up into several independent companies. The business of physically laying last-mile copper and fibre and connecting customers is done by Openreach, who are required by OFCOM (the telecoms regulator) to provide fair and non-discriminatory access to their services to any communications company.

The same applies to BT Wholesale, who maintain the network and provide access to that network to communications companies. BT Retail are the company who send you glossy leaflets, but they have to compete under exactly the same terms as any other company - they pay the same prices to Openreach and BT Wholesale as Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk or anyone else.

In addition, there's a completely independent fibre network operated by Virgin Media that covers the majority of households, and national coverage for HSPA from five different mobile operators. Brits love to complain about broadband, but I think we've got it pretty good.

tehwalrus4• 13 years ago

I still have to pay a monthly "line rental" for a phone number that I don't use, in order to pay someone else for ADSL broadband. I didn't know (until seeing the various replies to this post) that it could be someone other than BT.

walshemj7• 13 years ago

Especially where in the USA you lucky if you have a duopoly. The one thing the uk did right was local Loop unbundeling.

And as a BT.A shareholder and ex employee I must admit to enjoying the fact that buzby is kicking that nice Mr Murdoch in the nads in football

arethuza• 13 years ago

Although I've had terrible service from them in the past I thought I'd try their Infinity 2 FTTC service - we've had it a couple of months and I have to say I am pretty pleased. Download and upload speeds are great and the sports channels are a nice bonus (I have a rugby mad son).

My only real complaint about them is trying to work out how to actually get the £50 Sainsbury voucher they promised when I signed up. Fortunately this seems to be the only part of the process that suffers from the old-style BT Kafkaesque processes....

lotsofcows• 13 years ago

...well, unless you have access to cable.

walshemj7• 13 years ago

BT is more than just the ex GPO business they where moving into the big international business in a big way.

Ironically abroad BT is often seen as the fast new innovative disrupting company when compared to incumbent telcos.

k3n• 13 years ago

NSA surveillance critic

Out of all of the possible titles they could have chosen for him, they chose this? Just lump him in with the other millions of humans that are critical of surveillance?

DonGateley• 13 years ago

Thing is, about all he has ever been is a critic. Anybody got an example of his skill at anything but writing about crypto at the level of commentary and advocacy?

randal• 13 years ago

You obviously haven't read "Applied Cryptography" or looked at any of his algorithms.

Surveillance critic Bruce Schneier to leave post at BT

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