Bruce Schneier has another excellent essay (which originally appeared in the New Internationalist) posted at his “Schneier on Security” blog. The first sentence on the page gives a concise summary of his argument:
We need to move beyond security measures that look good on television to those that actually work.
Schneier say nothing in this essay that he hasn’t said, usually numerous times, before; but this is one of the best overall summaries that he’s done.
We need to focus our attention on security measures that actually increase security. This sounds obvious, and I guess it is; but I am still waiting for someone to explain to me how making sure that everyone in an office building / train / airplane has a photo ID makes me more secure. We need to stop enabling the terrorists’ self-glorification projects, and treat them for what they are: criminals. Most of all, as Schneier says, we must refuse to be terrorized. A bunch of quasi-religious psychopaths hell-bent on building a bridge to the 7th century cannot destroy our society, no matter what they do; but we, by irrational over-reactions, just might manage it.
Posted by Rich 
Random Walks 