The Future of Computer Security

A look at the Grand Challenges ahead for computer security

This "secure usability" chestnut is a hard one to crack. After all, for years security experts have been telling everybody else that security and usability are diametrically opposed: If you make a system more secure, you make a system harder to use, and vice versa. Making security something that users can understand might mean that we need to fundamentally change the way that we think about and work with information systems.

Consider the role of education. It's easy to blame many of the recent Internet worm epidemics on the failure of users to download and install software updates. At the height of the Blaster worm, Microsoft was running full-page advertisements in many newspapers giving people instructions on how to enable XP's built-in Internet Connection Firewall. But this massive educational campaign wouldn't have been needed if Microsoft had instead configured XP to automatically download and install its patches. Are we better off trying to educate users who do not wish to be educated, or should we be automating as many processes as possible, knowing that those automated systems will occasionally make a mis- takeand that they, themselves, can be subverted? That's part of the riddle of the fourth Grand Challenge.

Creating these challenges was a useful exercise for the researchers, academics and government employees who attended the workshop. But the real value of this work was putting a signpost into the ground pointing to the direction in which we should be marching. It's easy to get caught up in the tactical elements of computer security, with all of its encryption algorithms, public-key infrastructures, disk sanitization and other nuts-and-bolts issues. Ultimately, though, we need to start thinking more strategically about computer security, or else we are going to lose this war.

Indeed, if we don't get a handle on the spam and worm problems soon, Internet e-mail could become a lost communication mediummetaphorically speaking, it could become the CB radio of the 21st century. We might see individuals and businesses disconnecting their computers from the Internet, deciding that the added benefits of being able to transfer files and download software are simply not worth the extra cost of eternal vigilance and the risk that something might go wrong with their computer systems. That isn't a far-fetched scenario. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, millions of people have already given up on e-mail because they don't want the spam associated with it.

Nevertheless, I hope these challenges will be used as a starting point for research projects and for businessfolk who are thinking of starting new companies. There's clearly a lot of work to be done. Let's get started!