Bob Gourley: The Law of the Rodeo

From "Threats in the Age of Obama", I really enjoyed Bob Gourley's spin on applying the Law of the Rodeo to Infosec:

So is is possible to engineer perfectly secure systems?  Consider the law of the rodeo:  "There's not a horse that's never been rode, and not a rider that's never been throwed."  I like the analogy since it reminds us that all computer evil can be mitigated.  But it always fights back.  Good and evil will continue a fast paced rodeo dance long into the future. 

To engineer secure systems for the future we need to continually assess where we are and what the near term future holds for our technologies.  

He goes on to describe a list and how it may change. I would have some different ideas for candidates on the list, because I see bigger opportunities and threats as we move closer to identity, information and apps/data; and less about infrastructure, but the law applies just as well, even better in some ways at those layers of the stack.

Comments

[Bob Gourley]

Gunnar, thanks for spreading the word and expanding on these concepts. These are some tough issues we all need to come to grips with and figure out and your insights are much appreciated.

Cheers,
Bob