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The Honor System hasn't broken down. The problem is poorly applied technology that allows a small number of security breakdowns to be amplified. The occasional

The Honor System hasn't broken down. The problem is poorly applied technology that allows a small number of security breakdowns to be amplified. The occasional bad apple has always existed, but current technology allows a miscreant to reign havoc on a global population. In a previous age, human activity was siloed out of necessity. The affects of a security breakdown were thus localized to a small population. Technology allows business and government to save a few pennies by aggregating all the little silos into a few gigantic pools. One break in, and millions pay the price.

malwarebytess 5y ago
Huh. Never heard it put this way but of course you are right. Phrased this way the solution seems pretty clear -- we need to decentralize personal information out of these 3rd party databases. No amount of security is ever going to prevent a leak at some point so it's insane to keep creating these massive databases; and every time we ratchet up the security we're actually handing power over to the State and multi-national corporations.
- MichaelZuo 5y ago
  And how would you link these ‘decentralized databases’ together without recreating a “massive database’ ? Or do you mean destroying the current ‘massive databases’ permanently?
_wldu 5y ago
Data aggregation is similar to the encryption backdoor problem in computer science. This is sometimes referred to as the 'exceptional access system' problem. It is impossible to build such a system and then to ensure it is not abused or misused. The best example of this is trying to build a system that allows law enforcement to read private data. There's no way to ensure that only law enforcement (and none other) does that. Keys Under Doormats - https://www.schneier.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/paper-keys-under-doormats-CSAIL.pdf https://www.schneier.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/paper-ke...

malwarebytess 5y ago

Huh. Never heard it put this way but of course you are right. Phrased this way the solution seems pretty clear -- we need to decentralize personal information out of these 3rd party databases. No amount of security is ever going to prevent a leak at some point so it's insane to keep creating these massive databases; and every time we ratchet up the security we're actually handing power over to the State and multi-national corporations.

MichaelZuo 5y ago
And how would you link these ‘decentralized databases’ together without recreating a “massive database’ ? Or do you mean destroying the current ‘massive databases’ permanently?

_wldu 5y ago

Data aggregation is similar to the encryption backdoor problem in computer science. This is sometimes referred to as the 'exceptional access system' problem. It is impossible to build such a system and then to ensure it is not abused or misused. The best example of this is trying to build a system that allows law enforcement to read private data. There's no way to ensure that only law enforcement (and none other) does that. Keys Under Doormats - https://www.schneier.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/paper-keys-under-doormats-CSAIL.pdf https://www.schneier.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/paper-ke...