Security Matters

When I was little, I recall watching this popular science program in which Peter Ustinov popularized the theory of relativity. There was a rocket, a man on the rocket, a launch of the man and the rocket, and a transmission from the really fast man on the really fast rocket. The man on the really fast rocket saw earthlings slow down. Conversely, the earthlings saw the man talk really fast. Makes sense?

No, it doesn't. A cursory understanding of relativity tells you that the other's time must slow down or accelerate for both observers, not just for one. So both the man on the rocket and the earth station would have observed an apparent slowdown in the other's time. Of course, that seems confusing, since once the man on the really fast rocket returns to earth, time will have passed much faster on earth than for the man - but the reason for it is not speed, but acceleration.

This intro serves to explain something that has been bothering me for a while: the way people misunderstand information security concepts and continually use the wrong thing for the right purpose. It's really not hard, since there are only a very few and very distinct concepts - yet people get them wrong all the time. It's a little as if people take "security" as a one-size fits all umbrella, and doing something secure means doing everything under the umbrella.