[Philip Lelyveld comment: Bruce literally wrote the books on a) cryptography and b) why it gives a false sense of security. In this brief article he gives his informed assessment of what is real and what is manufactured in the current cyber-attack / espionage environment.]
Cyber-espionage is old news. What’s new is the rhetoric, which is reaching a fever pitch right now.
Unfortunately, both the reality and the rhetoric play right into the hands of the military and corporate interests that are behind the cyberwar arms race in the first place. There is an enormous amount of power at stake here: not only power within governments and militaries, but power and profit amongst the corporations that supply the tools and infrastructure for cyber-attack and cyber-defense. The more we believe we are “at war” and believe the jingoistic rhetoric, the more willing we are to give up our privacy, freedoms, and control over how the Internet is run.
See the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512386/danger-lurks-in-growing-new-internet-nationalism/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130312