Bruce Schneier Quotes (24 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Works

Liars and Outliers

Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier: 24 quotes 0 likes

Famous Bruce Schneier Quotes

“Against the average user, anything works; there's no need for complex security software. Against the skilled attacker, on the other hand, nothing works.”

Bruce Schneier

The Fallacy of Trusted Client Software, Schneier, Bruce, 2001-08, Cryptogram newsletter, 2018-08-12 https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2000/08/the_fallacy_of_trust.html,
Digital Rights Management

“Chaos is hard to create, even on the Internet. Here's an example. Go to Amazon. com. Buy a book without using SSL. Watch the total lack of chaos.”

Bruce Schneier

Biancuzzi, Federico, 2005-05-10, 2006-09-08, Bruce Schneier on Cryptography, SecurityFocus http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/324,
Politics and societal issues of the digital age

“The very definition of news is something that hardly ever happens. If an incident is in the news, we shouldn't worry about it. It's when something is so common that its no longer news – car crashes, domestic violence – that we should worry.”

Bruce Schneier

[The Guardian, 2008-09-04, A fetishistic approach to security is a perverse way to keep us safe, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/04/terrorism.terrorismandtravel, Schneier, Bruce, 2012-08-01]
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism

“Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four.”

Bruce Schneier

Computer Crime Hype, 2005-12-16, Schneier, Bruce, Schneier on Security blog, 2006-09-08 http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/computer_crime_1.html,
Politics and societal issues of the digital age

“Elections serve two purposes. The first, and obvious, purpose is to accurately choose the winner. But the second is equally important: to convince the loser.”

Bruce Schneier

American Elections Are Too Easy to Hack. We Must Take Action Now, Schneier, Bruce, 2018-04-18, The Guardian, 2018-08-12 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/18/american-elections-hack-bruce-scheier,
Elections

“We can't keep weapons out of prisons; we can't possibly expect to keep them out of airports.”

Bruce Schneier

Prison Shivs, Schneier, Bruce, 2005-05-15, Cryptogram newsletter, 2009-12-27 http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/prison_shivs.html,
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism

Bruce Schneier Quotes about people

“Only amateurs attack machines; professionals target people.”

Bruce Schneier

Semantic Attacks: The Third Wave of Network Attacks, 2000-10-15, Schneier, Bruce, Schneier on Security blog, 2010-08-31 http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0010.html#1,

“Every time I write about the impossibility of effectively protecting digital files on a general-purpose computer, I get responses from people decrying the death of copyright. "How will authors and artists get paid for their work?" they ask me. Truth be told, I don't know. I feel rather like the physicist who just explained relativity to a group of would-be interstellar travelers, only to be asked: "How do you expect us to get to the stars, then?"”

Bruce Schneier

I'm sorry, but I don't know that, either.
Protecting Copyright in the Digital World, Schneier, Bruce, 2001-08-15, Cryptogram newsletter, 2016-05-02 https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2001/0815.html#7,
Digital Rights Management

“More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk.”

Bruce Schneier

IT Conversations: Bruce Schneier, Schneier, Bruce, Doug Kaye, 2004-04-16 http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail119.html,
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism

“The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics.
The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.”

Bruce Schneier

[Wired, 2006-08-24, http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71642-0.html, Refuse to be Terrorized, Schneier, Bruce, 2006-09-08]
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism

Bruce Schneier Quotes

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

Bruce Schneier

preface to 2015 edition of Secrets and Lies
Cryptography
Context: A few years ago I heard a quotation, and I am going to modify it here: If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology.

Understanding , Problem , Thinking

“Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.”

Bruce Schneier

Visa and Amex Drop CardSystems, Schneier, Bruce, 2005-08-15, Cryptogram newsletter, 2006-09-08 http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0508.html#16,

Problem

“I mean, the computer industry promises nothing. Did you ever read a shrink-wrapped license agreement? You should read one. It basically says, if this product deliberately kills your children, and we knew it would, and we decided not to tell you because it might harm sales, we're not liable. I mean, it says stuff like that. They're absurd documents. You have no rights.”

Bruce Schneier

[Hartford Advocate, 2006-04-27, Your computer is not secure]
Politics and societal issues of the digital age

Children , Reading

“The lesson here is that it is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics. Encryption is too important to be left solely to governments.”

Bruce Schneier

[John Wiley & Sons, 1996, Applied Cryptography 2nd edition Source Code in C, Bruce Schneier, http://www.schneier.com/book-applied.html]
Cryptography

Law , Mathematics

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

Bruce Schneier

Secrets and Lies (2000), p. 53
Politics and societal issues of the digital age

“Not being angels is expensive”

Bruce Schneier book Liars and Outliers

Liars & Outliers, Bruce Schneier, ISBN 978-1-118-14330-8, p. 43

Angels

“In China, programs have to be certified by the government in order to be used on computers there, which sounds an awful lot like the Apple store.”

Bruce Schneier

[Schneier, Bruce (speaker), 19 June 2013, 2013, Bruce Schneier: Talks at Google, English, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3NJ-Ow2Lvg, 18:56, Google Inc.]

“… if anyone thinks they can get an accurate picture of anyplace on the planet by reading news reports, they're sadly mistaken.”

Bruce Schneier

Should Terrorism be Reported in the News?, Schneier, Bruce, 2005-05-15, Cryptogram newsletter, 2006-09-08 http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0505.html#3,
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism

Thinking , Reading

“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.”

Bruce Schneier

[John Wiley & Sons, 1996, Applied Cryptography 2nd edition Source Code in C, Bruce Schneier, http://www.schneier.com/book-applied.html]
Cryptography

World , Sister , Reading

“Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet.”

Bruce Schneier

The Futility of Digital Copy Prevention, Schneier, Bruce, 2001-05-15, Cryptogram newsletter, 2006-09-08 http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0105.html#3,
Digital Rights Management

Water

“When my mother gets a prompt 'Do you want to download this?' she's going to say yes. It's disingenuous for Microsoft to give you all of these tools [in Internet Explorer] with which to hang yourself, and when you do, then say it's your fault.”

Bruce Schneier

Politics and societal issues of the digital age

“Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break.”

Bruce Schneier

Memo to the Amateur Cipher Designer, Schneier, Bruce, 1998-10-15, Cryptogram newsletter http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9810.html#cipherdesign, (aka Schneier's Law)
Cryptography

“It's certainly easier to implement bad security and make it illegal for anyone to notice than it is to implement good security.”

Bruce Schneier

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World - Bruce Schneier
Cryptography

“Well-designed security systems fail gracefully.”

Bruce Schneier

Airport Security Failure, Schneier, Bruce, 2006-03-14, Schneier on Security, 2022-06-31 https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/03/airport_securit_2.html,
Human perception of reality, risk and terrorism