CIO Survey

Security ins and outs emerge

This year`s ITWeb Security Summit was a feast of international speakers, solid security advice and real hacking.

01 July 2007

If attendees at this year's ITWeb Security Summit were looking for hands-on security advice, they weren't disappointed. Delegates braved the chill winds to hear international speakers, including security and cryptography expert Bruce Schneier and PGP author Phil Zimmerman, present the latest developments and trends in security, cyber crime, privacy, networking and infrastructure issues.

Schneier's keynote addressed the topic of the economics of security, specifically the cost model of developing security products and services, the trends towards lock-in, the network effect and the market for “lemons” – poor security products that tend to drive good ones out of the market.

“Security is difficult to do well. A secure product on the shelf looks no different from an insecure one. And because the seller knows more than the buyer, competitively priced yet flawed products tend to supplant good ones,” he said, citing Nobel Prize-winning research done in the 1970s.

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