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Cybersecurity as Realpolitik by Dan Geer presented at Black Hat USA 2014

Black Hat

281K subscribers • 47 videos on Hallway • Conference channel

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  • Recommended by 1 person: 1 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2015 to 2019.
  • Presented by Dan Geer
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

65K views12 years ago1 recommendation

SecurityWeb and application securityExploits and vulnerabilitiesPrivacy and surveillance

Dan Geer delivers a Black Hat keynote arguing that cybersecurity is a matter of power, policy, and trade-offs rather than wishful thinking.

Power exists to be used. Some wish for cyber safety, which they will not get. Others wish for cyber order, which they will not get. Some have the eye to discern cyber policies that are "the least worst thing;" may they fill the vacuum of wishful thinking.

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Widely recommended as a profound and essential talk on the geopolitical, economic, and policy realities of cybersecurity.

pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “From Radio to Porn, British Spies Track Web Users’ Online Identities”

…isrepresentation means putting a motor-generator between you and the Smart Grid. Misrepresentation means using Tor for no reason at all. Misrepresentation means hiding in plain sight when there is nowhere else to hide. Misrepresentation means having not one digital identity that you cherish, burnish, and protect, but having as many as you can. 1 link to this video link…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “A Decade-Old Gag Order, Lifted”

…-cheaper surveillance substantially changes the balance of power in favor of the Executive and away from the Legislature. While President Obama was referring to something else when he said "I've Got A Pen And I've Got A Phone," he was speaking to exactly this idea -- things that need no appropriations are outside the system of checks and balances. link to this video link While Congress has been occupied with infighting and stupid political theater, the Executive branch has been taking a lot of their power. Is it "making war" when Congress is clearly abdicating their responsibilities? It has certainly done more damage to the country than any army has ever accomplished.…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

Y Not - Adventures in Functional Programming by Jim Weirich link The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing by Cory Doctorow link Cybersecurity as Realpolitik by Dan Geer link to this video link
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Fantasy of Opting Out”

> Obfuscation may be our best digital weapon. From Dan Geer's talk "Cybersecurity as Realpolitik" (which everyone should hear1/read2): >> There are so many technologies now that power observation and identification of the individual at a distance. They may not yet be in your pocket or on your dashboard or embedded in all your smoke detectors, but that is only a matter of time. Your digital exhaust is unique hence it identifies. Pooling everyone's digital exhaust also characterizes how you differ from normal. Privacy used to be proportional to that which it is impossible to observe or that which can be observed but not identified. No more -- what is today observable and identifiable kills…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Global coalition to Facebook: “Authentic names” are dangerous for your users”

From your other posts you seem to have a very good sense of social responsibility, so I'm surprised at this comment. Multiple identities are incredibly important to anybody in a minority that is threatened by their local mainstream culture. Black people in may areas (even today), gay or lesbian people in many parts of the world, and trans people just about anywhere1 are some obvious examples. There are numerous others, which bring varying amounts of risk if exposed publicly. These people are often forced to put on a facade when in public, to avoid the risk of being fired (only a few of these are protected classes), beaten, or even killed. The internet has created a space where these people…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US”

…ld stop spending time with your friend John. I heard him talking like a dissident recently... that could damage your Social Credit rating!" > enters with their phone Which is exactly why I follow Dan Geer's advice1 and don't carry around a tracking device. He's been trying to warn us for years2, and we still aren't listening3. 1 link 2 link to this video (transcript: link ) 3 link (transcript: link )…
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diafygion Hacker News • Mentions

On “Nearly All U.S. Home Depot Stores Hit By Credit Card Theft”

…nding, while by showing everyone what it is that we bought we zero out whatever stockpile of cyber weapons our adversaries have. We don't need intelligence on what weapons our adversaries have if we have something close to a complete inventory of the world's vulns and have shared that with all the affected software suppliers. Source: link Video: link to this video…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program”

…ruption, paid corporate shill, or useful idiot" has increased dramatically. While a "silent coup" is one possibility, I have been liking how Dan Geer's described1 the high-level picture of our situation as a Cold Civil War . Cold wars are fought by proxy, and there has been a lot of pointer-chasing to trace in the modern political situation. 1 link to this video ( link )…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “FBI’s Advice on Ransomware? Just Pay the Ransom”

…this question2 from the audience - from someone currently working for the NSA. The summary is that we need people doing NSA-style work, but on the defense side, and we need it now. If the NSA isn't doing that, then maybe people that want to actually protect their country should find somewhere else to work that is actually working on defense. 1 link to this video 2 link…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Government surveillance is as old as the telegraph”

Comparing intelligence operations of the past - with or without the help of business - to the current situation is a false equivalence. To quote Cybersecurity as Realpolitik 1 yet again: The central dynamic internal to government is, and always has been, that the only way for either the Executive or the Legislature to control the many sub-units of government is by way of how much money they can hand out. ... Suppose, however, that surveillance becomes too cheap to meter, that is to say too cheap to limit through budgetary processes. Does that lessen the power of the Legislature more, or the power of the Executive more? I think that ever-cheaper surveillance substantially changes the bala…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “German government to use Trojan spyware to monitor citizens”

It's been a cold civil war for many years. Encryption - and communication technology in general - is a power usable by anybody, not just established institutions. As Dan Geer explains: In other words, convergence is an inevitable consequence of the very power of cyberspace in and of itself. Increasingly powerful, location independent technology in the hands of the many will tend to force changes in the distribution of power. In fact, that is the central theme of this essay -- that the power that is growing in the net, per se, will soon surpass the ability of our existing institutions to modify it in any meaningful way, so either the net must be broken up into governable chunks or the net…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts”

…I've Got A Pen And I've Got A Phone," he was speaking to exactly this idea -- things that need no appropriations are outside the system of checks and balances. The "power of the purse" doesn't mean much when technology drives prices towards zero. This is made much worse by the "humans need not apply"2 shift in jobs from humans to automation. 1 link to this video link 2 link…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “What Happens When the Surveillance State Becomes an Affordable Gadget?”

…and away from the Legislature. While President Obama was referring to something else when he said "I've Got A Pen And I've Got A Phone," he was speaking to exactly this idea -- things that need no appropriations are outside the system of checks and balances. The "power of the purse" doesn't mean much when technology drives prices towards zero. 1 link to this video link…
View on Hacker News

pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Have Software Developers Given Up?”

…f how this might look, see Dan Geer's explanation1. There may be other ways to implement liability. I suggest that the software industry should find a way to implement this as soon as possible, if they want any say in what "liability" means. Yes, this will raise development costs; spending more for better development practices was the goal . 1 link to this video…
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Google reveals its servers all contain custom security silicon”

More ground is lost in the cold1 civil war2 for control of the General Purpose Computer. I hope that everyone choosing to centralize computing power likes the future they are creating. 1 link to this video (sec. 10 - link ) 2 link
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pdkl95on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Creating a ZigBee Chain Reaction”

That's is more or less the model I intended. Specifically, I was referring to one of Dan Geer's extremely important recommendations in "Cybersecurity as Realpolitik"1. 1 link to this video ( link )
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