O'Brien: Haystack vs How The Internet Works
O'Brien: Haystack vs How The Internet Works
Danny O'Brien writes
about the Haystack debacle, which may have exposed many of the people
it was supposed to be helping to protect. "Lessons? Well, as many
have noted, reporters do need to ask more questions about
too-good-to-be-true technology stories. Coders and architects need to
realize (as most do) that you simply can't build a safe, secure, reliable
system without consulting with other people in the field, especially when
your real adversary is a powerful and resourceful state-sized actor, and
this is your first major project. The Haystack designers lived in
deliberate isolation from a large community that repeatedly reached out to
try and help them: that too is a very bad idea. Open and closed systems
alike need independent security audits.
"