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

People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.

The mantra of any good security engineer is: "Security is a not a product, but a process." It's more than designing strong cryptography into a system; it's designing the entire system such that all security measures, including cryptography, work together.

Trying to make bits uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet. The sooner people accept this, and build business models that take this into account, the sooner people will start making money again.

Hardware is easy to protect: lock it in a room, chain it to a desk, or buy a spare. Information poses more of a problem. It can exist in more than one place; be transported halfway across the planet in seconds; and be stolen without your knowledge.

Given the credible estimate that we've spent $1 trillion on anti-terrorism security

Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.