Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy our country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage.

A colleague once told me that the world was full of bad security systems designed by people who read Applied Cryptography

It's frustrating; terrorism is rare and largely ineffectual, yet we regularly magnify the effects of both their successes and failures by terrorizing ourselves.

Microsoft made a big deal about Windows NT getting a C2 security rating. They were much less forthcoming with the fact that this rating only applied if the computer was not attached to a network and had no network card, and had its floppy drive epoxied shut, and was running on a Compaq 386. Solaris's C2 rating was just as silly.

The more technological a society is, the greater the security gap is.

Cryptography products may be declared illegal, but the information will never be

Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break.