The most important impact of technology on communications security is that it draws better and better traffic into vulnerable channels.
Whitfield DiffieRead
In a sense, communications networks can be defined entirely by who has cryptographic keys, and I think a lot of networks will work that way in the future.
Interpretation
The future of communication networks depends on the possession of cryptographic keys.
Whitfield Diffie's quote highlights the emerging paradigm in the landscape of communication networks, where access and security are predominantly determined by the ownership of cryptographic keys. As technology evolves, it suggests that future networks will rely heavily on secure forms of communication, ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive information, thus safeguarding privacy and security in digital interactions.
In practice
In a tech conference discussing the future of secure communications.
The most important impact of technology on communications security is that it draws better and better traffic into vulnerable channels.
It's simply unrealistic to depend on secrecy for security in computer software. You may be able to keep the exact workings of the program out of general circulation, but can you prevent the code from being reverse-engineered by serious opponents? Probably not. The secret to strong security: less reliance on secrets.
It isn't that secrets are never needed in security. It's that they are never desirable.
I understood the importance in principle of public key cryptography but it's all moved much faster than I expected. I did not expect it to be a mainstay of advanced communications technology
Marketers use big data profiling to predict who is about to get pregnant, who is likely to buy a new car, and who is about to change sexual orientations. That's how they know what ads to send to whom. The NSA, meanwhile, wants to know who is likely to commit an act of terrorism - and for this, they need us.
Machine learning is looking for patterns in data. If you start with racist data, you will end up with even more racist models. This is a real problem.
There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal, and that is to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the United States but around the world.
Figuring out what the next big trend is tells us what we should focus on.
Software patents, in particular, are very ripe for abuse. The whole system encourages big corporations getting thousands and thousands of patents. Individuals almost never get them.
Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering. When you finally get done and get to appreciate what you have done it is like a part of yourself that you've put together. I think a lot of the people here feel that way.
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