World Without Secrets

RICHARD HUNTER is Vice President, Security Research, GartnerG2, the strategic business growth division of Gartner, Inc., the world's largest technology research firm. Hunter is internationally renowned for his expertise in technology and security, cybercrime, information management, and privacy. He was formerly Vice President and Director of Research for Applications Development at Gartner. Hunter earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University with a concentration in music and is also a world-class harmonica virtuoso. He works in Gartner's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and lives nearby.

"...the book is important — it contains fresh thinking, a rarity these days.... [Richard Hunter] is always provocative. He gathers impressions and conversations from a surprisingly broad array of sources. He assembles this material into something approaching a coherent whole.... [Richard Hunter's] [i]nsights...are well worth the price of admission to World Without Secrets." (New York Times, April 28, 2002) World Without Secrets: Business, Crime and Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing by Richard Hunter delivers a first-rate explanation of the impact of technology on the public, government, business and communities. Hunter, who is vice president and director of security research for GartnerG2, a division of the world's largest technology research firm, writes expertly and urgently about the panoply of internet-related problems each of these diverse groups will face in the years ahead. "There's way too much information-about everything-out there now, and it's going to get a lot worse," Hunter argues. Because technologies arrive at different times, their impacts are cumulative. We don't see the true effects of a technology's use until long after that technology has invaded our everyday world. Looking forward, Hunter describes a world in which loss of privacy, technological terrorism and the heist of artistic rights are a foregone conclusion. This is an important book which sheds thought-provoking light on the slippery slope we are descending when it comes to Internet technology. (BookPage, August 2002)"...I would however definitely recommend this book as it certainly is an interesting, if not a little chilling, read..." (M2 Best Books, 5 September 2002)"...an excellent introduction to contemporary attitudes towards and policies of surveillance..." (Free Pint, 31 October 2002)"...written with a mixture of eloquence and frivolity that makes the book hard to put down...it is carefully crafted from numerous interviews with people...to create a well-rounded and multi-faced story..." (The Times Higher Educational Supplement, 15 November 2002)

• Preface xiiiAcknowledgments xviiEverything You Need to Know before We Start xixA Brief History of the Next 10 Years xxiChapter 1: 1Why Won’t They Leave Me Alone?The Power of Names and Numbers 2What Does It Take to Create a Universe? 3Crossing Over 5More Data, More Power, Few Controls 6Unstoppable Momentum 8By the Numbers 9Where Did the Secrets Go? 10Chapter 2:13Streets Without SecretsHow the Future Worked in the Past 15Authentication and the Exception Economy 17How It Works in Tampa 19What the Software Knows 21Yes, Probably 22Does It Work? 23More Faces in View 25Walk with Me 25Keep Walking 27Do the Math 28Draw the Lines 31So? 33Eternally Vigilant? 34Chapter 3: 37Homes Without SecretsI Want This Why? 39KISS 40About Those Cameras 42Data at Rest 44The Rules 45We Are the Boundary 47Chapter 4: 49Cars Without Secrets The Technical Stuff: Telematics 50Who Hears What 51The More You Give, the More You Get 51Who’s Driving? 53What the Owner Wants 54Cars Without Secrets, Now 55What the Car Knows 56Suppose 58Private by Intention 59What Can Policy Do? 60Call Me Any Time 62Speaking of Enhancing Performance 63Making the Drivers Smart 64Smart Cars, Yes 65It’s Simple, Not 67Hunter’s First Law 68Chapter 5: 69The N Party System: The Era of the Network ArmyHow Scenarios Work 70The Scenarios for Social Structures 70The Quadrants 72The Engineered Society 73The Lost and Lonely 75The Conscientious Objectors 80The Network Army 81I Repeat: The Network Is an Amplifier 84Chapter 6: 85Software Without SecretsDisruptive, Quite 86Business Without Secrets 87Interviewing Raymond 87Hackers and Crackers 89From Communities to Network Army 90Open Source Is More Than Open Source 96Yeah, It’s a High-Performance Team 97Is This Message Clear? 99The Medium and the Message 100Why They Listen 101Power Grabs, Not 101Ideological Conflict and Corruption 102Nemesis and the Network Army 104Can I Be Your Enemy? 104Generals Are Always Fighting the Last War 105The Message and the Medium, and the Audience for Linux 106If You’re Losing the Battles, Change the Battlefield 107Free Stuff Kills Competitors, Not Markets 108Why Not Just Let the Market Do Its Work? 109Maybe Someone Can Be Convinced 110How Did Things Get So Bad? 112A Few Pointers for Engineered Society Generals 112Hunter’s Second Law 114Chapter 7: 115The Rise of the MentatMentat Defined 115Why Mentats? 122Mentats Have (Hidden) Power 123Mentats Provide Less Information 124The Network Mentat 124The Mentat Reviewer 126Choose Your Mentat 126Trust Matters 128Mentats and the Law of Inertia 129Mentats and I-Filters 130Hunter’s Second Law—Personal and Institutional Conflict 130Breaking the Bubble 131Would Breaking the Bubble Have Saved Cisco? 132Reality Always Wins (in the World Without Secrets and Everywhere Else) 133On the Interactions of Laws 133Chapter 8:135Distracted Consumers, Mentats, and Timothy McVeighThe Path of Least Resistance 136It’s Easier If You Don’t Ask 137So Why Look? 139Did McVeigh Do It? 140The Necessary Knowledge Is That of What to Observe 142What Do You See? 142Chapter 9: 145In the Exception Economy, Be ExceptionalWhat Drives the Exception Economy? 147A Portrait of the Artist as a Very Big (or Little) Number 156Business Without Secrets 157The Business Is a Network 158Art Is Exceptional, Objects Are Not 165Chapter 10: 167Art Without SecretsWho Wins and Who Loses? 167Relationships Matter: The Fate of the Music Industry 170The Economics of Long-Playing Plastic 170Yes, It Really Works Just Like That 174Independents: They’re Everywhere. Are They Dangerous? 177What about the Relationship? 179Strategies for Record Industry Viability 180Strategy 1: Kill Digital Distribution 181Strategy 2: Monopolize Bandwidth 186Strategy 3: Prohibit Alternative Business Models 188Summary: The Fate of Digital Objects 192Power and Knowledge 192Chapter 11: 193Crime Without SecretsBuying In 194Yeah, It’s about Technology 195The Lessons 196Plan B 197What We Fear 198It’s Not the Transaction, It’s the Database 199Mass Victimization 200Why Worry? 202Chapter 12: 203War Without SecretsEngineered Society Warfare and the Terrorist 205Crime Is War, War Is Crime 208Network-Centric Warfare 209Crackers at War: Threat or Menace? 218What’s Potential and What’s Real? 225What to Do, Right Now 234Chapter 13: 245Digital Pearl HarborOn the Morning  . 247What Happened after Pearl Harbor 250A Pearl Harbor for the New Century 251A Dream of Electronic Handcuffs 252Under Observation 255Watching Everything Is Not Knowing Everything 256If Automated Surveillance Works, Whom Does It Work On? 257The Issue Is Control 259The Return of the Engineered Society 260Who’s Not on the Team? 261Pearl Harbor in the Borderless World 262Chapter 14: 265The Last SecretsNotes 267Index 275