
When It Comes to Security, We’re Back to Feudalism - dsr12
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/feudal-security/
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digitalengineer
He had me convinced until the last paragraph: _it’s time we step in in our
role as governments... to create the regulatory environments that protect us
vassals (and the lords as well). Otherwise, we really are just serfs._ We
won't be serfs if Big Government is running the show?

Edit: With regards to his choice of words: The Road to Serfdom, a Comic by
Hayek: <http://mises.org/books/TRTS/>

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Spooky23
There's a difference between a regulatory framework and central planning of
the means of production.

I think that if a bunch of smart people went into a room, they could come out
with a set of core principles that are in the best interests of users of cloud
IT systems, but not necessarily in the interest of the service providers.

Example: Phone number portability. Before 1997, your phone number was
immutably associated with your telephone company. That meant that you were
stuck with cellular provider X unless you changed your number -- which is a
big deal for many people. FCC regulations forced the carriers to allow
portability... an act that cost them alot of money, but benefited the public
good. So while government regulation can lead to extreme scenarios like a
Maoist-style police state similar to what is described in the comic that you
linked to, that isn't a likely scenario.

Government regulation applies to the government too. The absence of principles
enshrined in law and regulation regarding police access to your data has
resulted in police and prosecutors obtaining broad powers to access or mine
your data through the judiciary.

~~~
jiggy2011
This is true but such a discussion must be balanced with the cost of
compliance for newer market entrants.

For example if running a social network or email service etc required
following a large rule book then we probably would not have Facebook and maybe
not even gmail. We would all be using some clunky Microsoft or IBM solution
that took years to add new features because they had to get it all past the
regulators.

You don't want to get an angry phone call from a regulator because you put
some weekend hack up on HN.

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Cherian_Abraham
The main feudal lords map to the Four internet giants - Apple, Google,
Facebook and Amazon. Each has a dislocated jaw and a growing appetite to
consume entire industries.

As they grow, our implicit trust in our Feudal lords, without any kind of
Transparency in return is a dangerous thing.

~~~
mtgx
Apple is an Internet giant? When did that happen?

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dclusin
With the release of the iPhone. One example of this was that Apple was able to
use their clout to successfully sideline flash in favor of HTML5. That's not
to say the technology industry was in love with flash prior to the iPhone, but
the iPhone gave apple the sufficient stature to dictate what happens in the
mobile technology arena.

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netcan
I'm not sure why this is about security rather than any other aspect of the
devices and software services we use. I agree though that power is
accumulating into too few hands.

This is also the case in other industries and none of the solutions are very
attractive.

~~~
mappingbabel0
This is a trans-industry problem. However, with the rise of social networks
and other external data holders, it's getting more pronounced than ever in
technology. I wrote a large article about this issue - the new feudalism - in
summer 2011. May be of relevance, specifically the bits about distributed p2p
storage: [http://www.zdnet.com/facebook-google-welcome-to-the-new-
feud...](http://www.zdnet.com/facebook-google-welcome-to-the-new-
feudalism-3040093418/)

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jiggy2011
I wonder if technology is in fact a natural monopoly?

If what we are heading towards is a sci-fi future where every single device
integrates seemlessly with everything else, can we do that with so many
"kingdoms" not to mention the chaos of independent developers doing their own
things.

~~~
VLM
Everything about technology so far on the large scale has been about the
opposite, preventing every device from seamless integration. Swap the tire
from any car to any other car? Plumbers have entire vans full of
"compatibility" parts. Over a century of electrical and phone service yet very
limited interoperation and limited compatibility yet that "networking" is at
the level of trivial connectors and AC waveforms. No, I'm not thinking tech is
a natural monopoly.

I remember my joy at the rise of USB... finally no more rs232 problems with
DTE vs DCE and 9pin vs 25pin and m vs f connectors... then we got multiple USB
connectors. Even funnier we have "power only" usb cables for phone charging
that don't have data wires and are visually indistinguishable from "full"
cables. Eh... bring back my RS-232, usb isn't any better at all.

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bornhuetter
That page doesn't work on vanilla IE 9 - there's flashing boxes that pop up
over the text and artifacts all over the place. Is it really that hard to
support the browser that millions of people in offices are forced to use?

Partial screenshot - <http://i.imgur.com/8kP0b.png>

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bernardom
Irony:

Mr. Schneier links to MobileScope in his story, a company making an app to
help you track which applications are sending your data out.

If you go on their site and sign up to learn more, your confirmation screen
proudly displays "Powered by Google Documents."

