Security

Overview

The word security covers a wide range of issues:

home security
- intrusion prevention & detection
- fire prevention & detection
- disaster contingency plans (hurricanes, flooding)
- back-up utility systems (emergency water, electricity, heat, communications)
personal security
- physical safety (especially anything not covered by "home security")
- identity safety (prevention and detection of unauthorized use of one's personal credentials)
- privacy (prevention and detection of unauthorized distribution of private information)
"homeland security"
- defense against open attack by known enemies
- defense against terrorism (unexpected attack by unknown enemies)

Some common but mistaken assumptions about security include [1]:

that there is a basic, zero-sum tradeoff between safety and freedom: we can only augment one by diminishing the other
that major incidents such as 9/11 only happen because of some kind of "security breakdown" requiring stringent fixes by a protective government
that only professionals have a role to play in coping with 21st century dangers

David Brin:
- 2001 (post-9/11): The value - and empowerment - of common citizens in an age of danger: on citizen empowerment as the best technique for homeland security
- 2005: on Sousveillance as a means of enhancing transparency: "...the most objectionable sections of the Patriot Act were not those portions allowing the FBI to see, or surveil, a little better. (How, in any event, will you prevent it?) Rather, the truly scary parts of that law were those removing oversight, supervision and the power of each well-informed citizen to hold public servants accountable."

2006-11-15 Amateur Videos Are Putting Official Abuse in New Light (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Sousveillance at work