On the one hand, I have to admire the terrorists. I am in the process
of reading a book called “Secrets and Lies,” which describes security issues
in the modern world. It it written by a famous modern-day cryptographer,
but it does not focus on the math issues. The math is easy. The math always
works right. The math is perfect. Humans are not perfect. When humans
go to implement the abstract math in the real world, they make very human
mistakes. Many implementations have imperfections. Many “hacks,” whether
they are against encrypted messages, smart cards, building security systems,
cash/credit systems, or anything in which security is involved, are now against
the implementations, not the math. Just last week, I was describing the
various classes of people who would be up against your system. On the one
hand, you have the white-collar hacker, who has lots of skill, but wants
very little risk. He’ll do a few things, mostly intellectual. On the other
hand, you have fanatics, terrorists, religious groups, and other wackos.
They do not necessarily have the technical expertise, but they have extremely
strong ideals. They will risk all, sometimes even their lives, for their
cause. If they can get their way, they do not mind brute force attacks that
most others would deem too risky. They were smart enough to “think outside
of the box.” They used coast-to-coast airplanes, full of fuel, as bombs.
Not ammonium nitrate fertalizer, not C4, not a carbomb–but a big, fucking
plane full of people! Not only that, they used the simplest of weapons–boxcutter
razorblades with plastic handles. They slipped past security easily with
these. Most people would have tried to figure out how to get a gun or bomb
on board, but they used simple brute-force weapons. Yet it was all effective
because they didn’t care about the risks. They also picked some kick-ass
targets. The World Trade Center has a very concentrated number of people
in a single geographic location that is easy to see from the air. Two hits
takes out both towers, and a huge number of people (I have heard numbers
from 2,000 to 40,000!). On the other hand, I am angry and frightened and
freaked out. These guys killed not only themselves (yeah, whatever), but
also thousands of Americans. They would have taken out even more if flight
93 had hit a population center. I do not know any of these people–the only
thing that connects me to them is that we happen to live in the same continent–but
I am still enraged. We are all American, and these terrorist freaks killed
thousands of INNOCENT people. Whomever these people are, they are angry
at America. I can see them picking the Pentagon as a target–strategically,
it makes sense. But the World Trade Center. They are all innocent citizens
with no connection (that I am aware of) to the government! Men, women, very
likely children as well, all simple people doing their jobs. This just pisses
me off. Now would be a very good time for more attacks, if the terrorists
wanted to do the one-two-punch. On the other hand, I see something artistic
with picking Septeber 11th as a single strike date. After all, September-11
or “9-11″ or “911″ has meaning to all Americans. A second attack would ruin
the beauty of that connection. Regardless, I typically carry a little Jansport-style
laptop backpack with me. The last 24 hours, or so, I have been carrying
around my internal frame pack. This contains a scanner, a ham radio, my
laptop, extra clothing, medical supplies, candles, matches, batteries, a
puzzle book or two, and several other things. I now carry this with me everywhere.
Who knows when a local target might get hit? Who knows if these wackos
end up using biological weapons, which have a potentially larger radius of
effect and much more dangerous ramifications? I am now keeping my backpack
with me at all times, and try to keep my girlfriend with me as much as we
both can manage. Yes–I am freaked out by the whole ordeal.
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