solving the wrong problem

[Sherri Davidoff]

Reminds me of the White Knight from Alice in Wonderland, who doesn't
understand his threat model, and doesn't know how to effectively use
his tools:

`I see you're admiring my little box,' the Knight said in a friendly
tone. `It's my own invention -- to keep clothes and sandwiches in. You
see I carry it upside-down, so that the rain ca'n't get in.'

`But the things can get out,' Alice gently remarked. `Do you know the
lid's open?

`I didn't know it,' the Knight said, a shade of vexation passing over
his face. `Then all the things must have fallen out! And the box is no
use without them.''  
...

`You see,' he went on after a pause, `it's as well to be provided for
every-thing. That's the reason the horse has all those anklets round
his feet.'

`But what are they for?' Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity.

`To guard against the bites of sharks,' the Knight replied. `It's an
invention of my own.'

Full text from the chapter:
http://www.sabian.org/Alice/lgchap08.htm

alien


"Perry E. Metzger" writes:
>We already have the term "snake oil" for a very different type of bad
>security idea, and the term has proven valuable for quashing such
>things. We need a term for this sort of thing -- the steel tamper
>resistant lock added to the tissue paper door on the wrong vault
>entirely, at great expense, by a brilliant mind that does not
>understand the underlying threat model at all.

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