I have always been a physics enthusiast. Theoretical physics to be precise. Mathematics has never been my strong point.
Last night I was watching a program on the cosmos which documented the our understanding of the universe and it’s fundamental particles. I couldn’t help but draw some parallels between the way these two totally disconnected domain.
In my mind, the internet is pretty much like the universe. It grows and evolves and some parts of it fade away. On the internet information flows, so does in the universe (if could expand on this point but that would deviate me from the point). The sun is the central server with the planets as hosts (okay I admit, it’s a bit silly, but hang in there).
The parallel came into my head with respect to our understanding the nature of security, what is needed and how much. Every time the scientist discover some new particle/principle about the universe, it answers a few questions, but raises a lot more.
Similarly, whatever little experience I’ve had, security questions have only grown over the years. And I think they will continue to grow. We introduce a technology that addresses an issue, a lot more crop up (it takes us some time before we actually find that out or we live in denial about it – the chip & pin issue for example).
I do not see days getting easier for the security professionals (in a sadistic way that’s good). But just like in cosmology, there is an opinion that another Einstein is needed to relook at the present understanding of cosmology, I think a newer, bolder, radically different approach to security. I am not imaginative enough to come up with one, but I have this belief, that it is sorely needed.
