Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World

Policy Punchline

Bruce Schneier is a public-interest technologist, and his latest book "Click Here to Kill Everybody" seeks to explore risk and security questions in today's hyper-connected world with smart thermostats, "Internet of Things" home devices, self-driving cars, and other "mini computers" that are easily hackable and pose grave security threats. In this interview, Mr. Schneier explains why tech today is fundamentally different as it’s no longer the same mechanical or electromechanical device but rather all hackable computers; why the "surveillance capitalism" business model of big tech companies in fact encourages security flaws; how open source and decentralization technology can go a long way helping address the issues; and his vision for a secure “Internet+” future and some of the sensible and realistic policies that we can implement... We also touch on the current COVID-19 crisis and the contact tracing technology that is gaining increasing attention. Mr. Schneier calls it a "dumb idea" and explains why between false positives and our current lack of testing capacity, contact tracing technology does little to address the real issue. A brilliant contrarian, Mr. Schneier provides convincing arguments for antitrust measures against unethical tech business models and harsh critiques on the tech policymaking environment today. In addition to over a dozen of published books, Mr. Schneier has also written hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter "Crypto-Gram" and his blog "Schneier on Security" are read by over 250,000 people. He is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AccessNow, and the Tor Project.