Bruce Schnier has outlined his take on the three biggest threats in the computer security world, in the latest issue of Cryptogram.
The online version is at
Three Emerging Cyber Threats Last month, I participated in a panel at the Information Systems Forum in Berlin. The moderator asked us what the top three emerging threats were in cyberspace. I went last, and decided to focus on the top three threats that are not criminal: * The Rise of Big Data. By this I mean industries that trade on our data. These include traditional credit bureaus and data brokers, but also data-collection companies like Facebook and Google. They're collecting more and more data about everyone, often without their knowledge and explicit consent, and selling it far and wide: to both other corporate users and to government. Big data is becoming a powerful industry, resisting any calls to regulate its behavior. * Ill-Conceived Regulations from Law Enforcement. We're seeing increasing calls to regulate cyberspace in the mistaken belief that this will fight crime. I'm thinking about data retention laws, Internet kill switches, and calls to eliminate anonymity. None of these will work, and they'll all make us less safe. * The Cyberwar Arms Race. I'm not worried about cyberwar, but I am worried about the proliferation of cyber weapons. Arms races are fundamentally destabilizing, especially when their development can be so easily hidden. I worry about cyberweapons being triggered by accident, cyberweapons getting into the wrong hands and being triggered on purpose, and the inability to reliably trace a cyberweapon leading to increased distrust. Plus, arms races are expensive. That's my list, and they all have the potential to be more dangerous than cybercriminals. Big data: