The Future Has a Kill Switch

palegray.net writes "Bruce Schneier brings us his perspective on a future filled with kill switches; from OnStar-equipped automobiles and city buses that can be remotely disabled by police to Microsoft's patent-pending ideas regarding so-called Digital Manners Policies. In Schneier's view, these capabilities aren't exactly high points of our potential future. From the article: 'Once we go down this path — giving one device authority over other devices — the security problems start piling up. Who has the authority to limit functionality of my devices, and how do they get that authority? What prevents them from abusing that power? Do I get the ability to override their limitations? In what circumstances, and how? Can they override my override?' We recently discussed the Pentagon's interest in kill switches for airplanes. At what point does centralizing and/or delegating operational authority over so much of our lives become a dangerous practice of its own?"

Comments

Re:Oh, wonderful!

[Travoltus]

Cell phone jammers are illegal.

My bet is you go out of your way not to get caught using that device because if you were caught, your lanky little Slashdot posting ass would get pounded by one, two or more cell phone users that you jammed, before the cops hauled you away.

By extension, cell phone jammers are either one of two things: cowards or road pizza.