[Cryptography] What do we mean by Secure?

[Peter Gutmann]

Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> writes:

>The more I hear people talk about making thing secure, the more I hope they
>will explain what they mean by secure.

Here's the military version of secure, as in "Secure the building":

* The Navy would turn out the lights and lock the doors.

* The Army would surround the building with defensive fortifications, tanks
  and concertina wire.

* The Marine Corps would assault the building, using overlapping fields of
  fire from all appropriate points on the perimeter.

* The Air Force would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy the
  building.

(An old joke, author unknown).

>In another interesting policy area, Alan Karp has developed the idea of
>Voluntary Oblivious Compliance (VOC)
>[...]

That sounds like another form of the Break-Glass Security Policy (lots of
references, Google for whatever you feel like reading).

Peter.