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fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

Bruce Schneier's blog talks about [schneier.com] the recent hack of CIA director John O. Brennan's AOL account [soylentnews.org] (among others) and says when it comes to social engineering attacks:

The problem is a system that makes this possible, and companies that don't care because they don't suffer the losses. It's a classic market failure, and government intervention is how we have to fix the problem.

It's only when the costs of insecurity exceed the costs of doing it right that companies will invest properly in our security. Companies need to be responsible for the personal information they store about us. They need to secure it better, and they need to suffer penalties if they improperly release it. This means regulatory security standards.

Schneier goes on to suggest the government should establish minimum standards for results and let the market figure out the best way to do it. He also partly blames consumers because they demand any security solutions be easy to use, ending with:

It doesn't have to be this way. We should demand better and more usable security from the companies we do business with and whose services we use online. But because we don't have any real visibility into those companies' security, we should demand our government start regulating the security of these companies as a matter of public safety.

Related: WikiLeaks Publishes CIA Chief's Personal Info [soylentnews.org]

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