Schneier Born Yesterday?

http://cryptome.org/2014/02/schneier-yesterday.htm

13 22 12 years ago

MWil2• 12 years ago

Without ever having heard of Schneier before the Snowden leaks, I just don't see the basis for the respect he receives. I wrote here somewhere yesterday that his efforts in air-gapping his workstation used to examine the Snowden files is extremely lax considering he's examining the Snowden files.

strict92• 12 years ago

He is widely touted here on HN and other places as the final voice in crypto and freedom and I also do not understand why.

I cannot respect someone who does not practice what they advise others to do:

I understand that most of this is impossible for the typical Internet user. Even I don't use all these tools for most everything I am working on. And I'm still primarily on Windows, unfortunately. Linux would be safer.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/how_to_remain...

dllthomas9• 12 years ago

There are legitimate criticisms, but the way this is phrased is absurd. Security is always about tradeoffs - he's chosen his, and he's made you aware of the ones you're making.

dllthomas9• 12 years ago

The basis for the respect he receives is that he's been writing cogently about these issues for almost two decades now. He doesn't always get it right (no one does) but he usually has interesting things to say with some reasonable considerations behind them.

I'm a little confused by his specific recommendations here, too, though - this post does raise some good points (if somewhat acerbically).

MWil2• 12 years ago

Even some of the greatest minds just lose "it", whatever "it" is that they had. First off, he absolutely deserves some credit just for having the tough conversations that have taken far too long to enter the mainstream. It's just a question of how long he gets to ride his own coattails if he hasn't maintained the same level of thoroughness and execution (like the poster above you mentioned).

krapp• 12 years ago

Well, he did write some of the ciphers used in Cryptonomicon. So there's that I guess.

tumba• 12 years ago

I imagine much of his reputation goes back to his book Applied Cryptography [1] written back in the 1990s.

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=A6ZO2D6ayNwC&dq

summerdown2• 12 years ago

It's possible he isn't revealing everything he's doing. I know I'd leave a few surprises waiting for people.

Also, it's possible (I'd argue, probable) that security services of his country of residence have assigned people to watch him and prevent agents of other countries getting near the files. So anyone coming for the Snowden files probably has another agency to get through first.

pigeons• 12 years ago

If he was, his mom must have had one heck of a labor.

Schneier Born Yesterday?

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