Pinning his idea around the technical challenges faced in securing users’ online data, Dr Simon Foley discusses Shannon’s maxim, and how we can’t rely on security by obscurity.
“Shannon’s maxim is one of the pillars when it comes to designing secure systems,” began Foley, highlighting education as a way to tackle problems coming down the line with big data.
“We don’t want a situation where the designer knows how the system works, the attacker knows how the system works, but the person using the system doesn’t,” he said.
People still don’t agree on the true definition of security online, which is an obstacle for Foley and his peers when it comes to designing a protocol for online security.
Teaching the user how different security applications are created, though, can help change this.
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Words by Gordon Hunt
