A good insight from Bruce Schneier

[unixronin]

From an IT Conversations interview with Bruce Schneier:

Doug Kaye:  Here’s my favorite quote in the whole book, and I know that you probably know which one it is!

Bruce Schneier:  Actually, I don’t!  I can’t wait!

Doug Kaye:  That “more people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows just how good we are at evaluating risks.”

Bruce Schneier:  That was actually a fun quote.  I actually went to the government web site, which actually has death statistics from various things.  You can see how many people die from lightning, from heart disease, from anything, and the results are surprising.  People tend to worry about the wrong things. 

We worry about what’s in the news.  I tell my friends that if it’s in the newspaper, don't worry about it because it means it hardly every happens.  It’s news.  News hardly every happens; that’s why it’s news!  When something stops being in the newspaper, then worry about it.

And you know, he has a point.  To quote a related saying, "One death is a tragedy; fifty thousand deaths are a statistic."

Go read the interview.  It's about Schneier's new book about how fear makes us react, and how that relates to security and the kind of security decisions it leads us to make (usually bad ones).  It'll make you think (assuming you're not already thinking this way, as a lot of us have been since well before 9/11).

Comments

prepared

[likefinewine.livejournal.com]

someone who is certain it can't happen here, ...

CAN there still be such people? Here? Or anywhere in the world? :-(

Yes, I know. There can be such people. :-( And THIS is as scary as the fact, itself. How many people/places are "ready" for a "big" one? Or even, a "little" one?

Is my city? I've asked and I'd say no. Am I personally? No. So here I sit. Part of the Problem. Not part of the Solution. Maybe worse than the regular citizen. Because it's NOT an it-can't-happen, to me. In my brain, it can. It's more like 'when,' rather than 'if.' So... my not being fully prepared, is worse. :-(

Re: prepared

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Awareness is the first step in preparedness. If something should happen in your vicinity someday, that awareness in itself may make the difference between wasting ten minutes in a modified stationary panic trying to make sense of what just happened, and being the person who snaps out of the shock and gets everyone moving out of the building.