[Cryptography] [FORGED] Re: How programming language design can help us write secure crypto code

Peter Gutmann pgut001 at cs.auckland.ac.nz
Sun Nov 1 19:15:54 EST 2015


Ron Garret <ron at flownet.com> writes:
>On Oct 31, 2015, at 6:29 PM, Peter Gutmann <pgut001 at cs.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>
>> (gcc is full of latent pathogens like this one).
>
>I think you meant “pathologies”, not “pathogens.”  A pathogen is a biological
>agent that causes disease.  If you’re going to use inflammatory rhetoric you
>should choose your words with care.

The term was coined by psychology professor James Reason, whose specialty is
the breakdown of complex technological systems, it applies to "problems that
aren't discovered until the user has fallen victim to them" (see "Human
Error", James Reason).  I did choose the words with care.

Peter.


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