8 ms·
Surveillance critic Bruce Schneier to leave post at BT
- a3n 13y agoA new career in journalism? I think Glenn Greenwald and Pierre Omidyar are hiring.
- phaus 13y agoI'm not sure anyone wants to pay journalists what a world-class cryptographer makes.
- dmix 13y agoJust like "business" skills, journalism should be something people develop on the side while still maintaining their primary work skillset (with industry-specific skills). The big problem with journalism right now is the complete disconnect between the journalist and their understanding of the topic. Just look at every software or bitcoin article. This is largely because of the internet's turn-around speed requirements and low pay. They have no time to invest in learning about the topic. The only way to save journalism is if we start contributing to it like we do OSS. Instead of paying people minimum wage and expecting quality results, we have people who contribute articles on the side. But not just anybody writing (like blogging), but people who invest in learning how to write - working with full-time editors who manage the input and source writers.
- phaus 13y agoI agree with all of your suggestions, but I think a more pressing issue in the world of journalism is getting rid of the political agendas. Though some of the bias might be naturally eliminated as the quality of journalists is improved.
- dmix 13y agoIf we stop hiring "professional" writers with English degrees to write everything, and replace them with a distributed collection of writers with industry knowledge, we'll have a much greater input from a variety of fields. Much less likely to have bias or feel pressure from their newsroom bosses.
- nitrogen 13y agoBut equally if not more likely to have to filter through fluff pieces and submarine PR to get to any useful information.
- ghaff 13y agoI don't totally disagree but the downside is that the writers are then increasingly people who are being paid for things that may influence what they write. Of course, smart and principled people aren't necessarily as influenced as some would like to believe--but how many commenters on this site would really give someone from $PROPRIETARY_COMPANY an unbiased hearing on topics that touch open source or open standards. Journalists tend to have their own cultural biases--although more on political topics than technical ones. But, even if I won't write things I don't believe, I still choose the topics I discuss in public.
- mdpye 13y agoJournalists tend to have their own cultural biases--although more on political topics than technical ones. You're on to more than you give yourself credit for there. Much modern journalism is an integral part of the political system, and many papers fit into your $PROPRIETARY_COMPANY variable quite neatly. There is some separation between party and paper, but I think as far as politics goes, we're pretty close to the hypothetical situation you describe.
- ghaff 13y agoThis probably goes further back in time than many on this site remember but once upon a time Newsweek and Time were pretty much the two weekly news mags. (US News and World Report but that had a somewhat different focus.) People were often surprised when Time and Newsweek had the same cover story even when it wasn't the current big news story--but this really reflected that the reporters and editors went to the same schools and worked in the same environment so really thought the same in a lot of respects. I was an engineering major but I was involved with newspapers in various respects through school and there was definitely a certain "perspective" with the mainstream publications.
- prawn 13y ago"Journalists tend to have their own cultural biases--although more on political topics than technical ones." Glenn Greenwald actually argues for transparency in advocacy rather than pretending that an objective journalist even exists. Long-winded conversation about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/opinion/a-conversation-in-lieu-of-a-column.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/opinion/a-conversation-in-... Also check Paid Content for a bit of a summary: http://paidcontent.org/2013/10/28/glenn-greenwald-vs-the-nyts-bill-keller-on-objectivity-and-the-future-of-journalism/ http://paidcontent.org/2013/10/28/glenn-greenwald-vs-the-nyt...
- salient 13y agoSo like an Wikipedia for news? You may be on to something there!
- wpietri 13y agoDepends on the sort of journalism. Sure, you can do some sorts of writing on the side. But there's plenty of journalism that doesn't work that way. A good chunk of news requires personal presence and connection. For example, if you're covering a state legislature or a city government, you just have to spend a lot of time getting to know legislative staff and other people around the capitol or city hall. And you have to have enough readership for them to be willing to talk to you. You might be able to do that in your spare time for a small town, but I don't think it's possible for anything more substantial. The same is true of investigative journalism. Deep stories take months of research and writing. They take real budgets, real skills, real editorial backing. I write a lot for fun, and have for years. But there's only so far that fun can take you, and those places don't include the most important societal functions of journalism.
- forgottenpass 13y agojournalism should be something people develop on the side while still maintaining their primary work skillset (with industry-specific skills). I really love the idea of this, but I think its infeasible given time constraints in every industry, including press. I do think there is room and cross-disciplinary talent in media organizations for a journalist reporting on a (for example) programming heavy topic to grab someone from their engineering staff to collaborate and then share a by-line. If you have someone with domain knowledge in-house you might actually save research time and get a better article even with more people working on it.
- midas007 13y agoYeah, it wouldn't be a highest and best use of his talents... eg hard-core crypto research. The opinion pieces seem like a highly-visible side hobby.
- samstave 13y agoJust curious, what does a world class crypto make?
- polymatter 13y agoI'm not sure that matters much to a world-class cryptographer who has consistently spoken out on principle. Many many people want to do meaningful work that matters.
- jonknee 13y agoI'm not sure that matters to Pierre Omidyar. Bruce could help make sure the rest of the new media organization's systems are secure and also help train more traditional journalists on how to stay secure.
- jMyles 13y agoAre they? How can I get at them?
- cenhyperion 13y agoI don't know if they are, but you could probably email Glenn at the email/PGP key he provides on his twitter.
- revelation 13y agoI think this might be more likely than just a random hunch. His columns and blog posts are certainly mass-appeal compatible.
- midas007 13y agoAre they still in "stealth mode" (eg havent figured out a brand identity)?
- rst 13y agoThey're still calling it "NewCo", if that's what you're asking. And some other not-so-minor details are also still either under development or under wraps, most notably the revenue model. But the general strategy has been announced: They want to be a full-service news organization, with everything from Greenwald's stuff to sports, and they want to trade on the personal brands of their top hires. And a lot of those hires have also been announced. It seems a little odd to call this "stealth"; the more typical stealth startup has announced only its name, and none of that other stuff!
- walshemj 13y agoAs an Ex BT person I could see this coming a mile off with Bruces principled stand it could realistically only end this way. And techcruch guys "ouster" are we channeling variety now!!!
- bqe 13y agoWhat sort of title is "security futurologist"?
- evo_9 13y agoHave you ever read his articles? I think that's as apt a title as any for Mr. Schneier.
- pyrocat 13y agoan awesome one
- nkohari 13y agoOnce you reach a certain level of skill and experience, like Schneier has, you sort of outgrow titles. I'd say he's a researcher and an educator.
- yeukhon 13y agoWithout doing any research on what he actually does at BT, that's probably between senior consultant/advisor and security evangelist, which he would speak about his cryptanalysis skill and be the go-to person when someone needs advise on security matter.
- btbuildem 13y ago"wizard"
- znowi 13y agoGood for him, I say. Opens up interesting opportunities. Feel sad for BT employees though. With a company culture like this I don't think it's much of an attraction for smart, innovative folk.
- walshemj 13y agoThey need to follow Microsofts lead and get rid of stack ranking - That would increase morale by 100% at a stroke the CARE scores (BT's internal 360 feed back system) would go through the roof.
- Brakenshire 13y agoI wouldn't have thought full stack ranking (i.e. actually firing the bottom x% each year) would be legal under British/European employment law.
- walshemj 13y agoROTFL - you have no idea mate. - contrary to belief in Europe you can fire people for poor performance fairly easy and in the Uk employers can do stuff which would end them up in court in even right to work states - ie artificially make a subsidiary go bust to avoid paying statutory redundancy (so that the tax payer pays). And soory if that sounded harsh but you can manipulate any PRP system to get that result - it was an openly admitted fact that every year the scores where manipulated to put the right number of people in the CAT 4 (in need of improvement) who where targeted for redundancy. Even getting a CAT 2 or 1 wouldn't keep pace with inflation
- shubb 13y agoIANAL, but it is possible to do this under UK law - employees in the UK can be fired for any or no reason for the first 2 years, providing they are not being discriminated against (religion, gender etc). After that, they can be fired if it is for fair reason, and a fair process is followed. Underperformed is a fair reason, and formal stack ranking is a fair process (i.e. no discrimination). The employer would need to update people on their performance regularly, and provide ailing employees with help to improve. Underperformed sales staff are fired regularly like this pretty much everywhere. It is true that firing employees does expose an employer to litigation / tribunal, which can be expensive. However, an employer that is doing stack ranking and is prepared for that sort of thing would not fall victim to the usual things that get companies in trouble - not having good enough performance metrics to justify firing the only X in that department, or assigning unpleasant work to employees to drive them out (which can be seen as constructive dismissal). I have also noticed some large companies hiring the bulk of their staff as contractors, and 'firing' them for 3 days a year so that they don't become employees. This would make them basically at will employees, but I am not sure how well this would stand up if tested. This book is cool: http://www.cm-murray.com/little-books/little-book-of-uk-employment-law-for-us-employers/ http://www.cm-murray.com/little-books/little-book-of-uk-empl...
- dchest 13y ago"Schneier told The Register this evening of his departure: "This has nothing to do with the NSA. No, they [BT] weren't happy with me, but they knew that I am an independent thinker and they didn't try to muzzle me in any way. It's just time. I spent seven years at BT, and seven years at Counterpane Internet Security, Inc before BT bought us. It's past time for something new." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/16/bruce_schneier_leaves_bt/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/16/bruce_schneier_leave...
- csmuk 13y agoI think it's a little more complicated than that. If you had his background and the job in question, could you morally continue? No. If you were his employer and were involved in such things, could you continue employing him? No. Nothing may have been said, even between Schneier and BT, but consider that every contract out there has a "don't badmouth your old employer" clause these days.
- the_watcher 13y agoI don't know. They were definitely at odds, but there was a mutual benefit to working together. Keep your enemies close comes to mind, as both he and his employer benefit from close contact with their opponents.
- pcrh 13y agoI wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that BT has introduced an opt-out filtering process for internet access. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25400009 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25400009
- 017e075160b 13y agoWalking away is the greatest form of rejection. Kudos Bruce.
- windexh8er 13y agoI think Schneier is a great advocate as of recent and has become a more inspiring security leader (compared to many who are just talking heads who have no real experience, comparatively). That being said, I feel he was a different person when Counterpane got bought out by BT. I happened to work for BT North America Professional Services at the time, which was ultimately purchased headcount from International Network Services to expand quickly. We had no access to Counterpane resources for the most part - although we were told to try and work some of the Counterpane product into consulting recommendations. I tried a few times to get involved with what Counterpane used to be, with the intent of trying to get some facetime with Schneier to really find out who he was (was very deterministic about finding a good mentor at the time). Long story short - BT was so fragmented internally to tie the name BT to Counterpane, or even Schneier was a joke. It was obvious after the first few months that BT bought Counterpane for the talking head (IMHO) which I still feel was true up until now. Schneier's name was worth more than the IP they bought, most likely. Sad state of affairs. BT was, and still today, has no interest in improving security within their own telecom products, but wanted to be very good at the emerging pentesting market (back in 2007'ish). They're no better than the PWCs of the world today - overpriced scanning services with no real meat, but they have a few key folks to make it look like they 'can'. TL;DR Glad to see Schneier leaving. I thought it was hypocritical of him working for BT given his recent improvement in position publicly around the Snowden releases. I have renewed respect for him.
- midas007 13y agoI seem to remember a PWC connection. Did PWC own @stake (what was l0pht) before it disappeared into Symantec? Or did their army of pen testers diffuse elsewhere?
- lifeisstillgood 13y agoIt's indicative of an interesting, less corporate future. As knowledge workers become more important, then it's the personal capabilities (and integrity) that matter most - and that's not something that can be applied across a 100,000 person "enterprise" or mandated in policy procedures. We shall see smaller companies, and more fragmentation of working relationships - so protect that reputation and that brand folks !
- tehwalrus 13y agoSo weird that Schneier was working for BT - As a Brit, this is the company that you have to buy a phone line from to get broadband, and that then spams you to buy their broadband with snail mail glossy leaflets once a month.
- prof_hobart 13y agoNo you don't. I've had broadband for years without having any relationship with BT.
- tehwalrus 13y agobut you had to pay for extra physical cables to be installed to your house right? and the same again every time you move?
- mattmanser 13y agoA lot of the UK has cable, but also recently I believe they're now unbundling the exchanges in a lot of the bigger cities, which means you don't have to buy a BT phone line.
- prof_hobart 13y agoNope. It was already there when I moved in 12 years ago. And even if I did, that still doesn't involve BT. I don't have a BT phone cable at my house though, so would need to pay for that to be installed if I wanted to go down that route.
- tehwalrus 13y agoInteresting... I thought the old nationalised BT had cables to every house. I just object to not being allowed to use the hardware already installed with a provider entirely of my own choice, which would be the most efficient way to run infrastructure businesses.
- 13y ago
- k3n 13y ago> NSA surveillance critic Out of all of the possible titles they could have chosen for him, they chose this? Just lump him in with the other millions of humans that are critical of surveillance?
- DonGateley 13y agoThing is, about all he has ever been is a critic. Anybody got an example of his skill at anything but writing about crypto at the level of commentary and advocacy?
- randal 13y agoYou obviously haven't read "Applied Cryptography" or looked at any of his algorithms.