Bruce Schneier writes a book about the brain

The famous cryptologist, bestselling author of cryptology, the developer of the cipher Blowfish and Twofish, became interested in human psychology. Bruce Schneier believes that to create good computer security systems you need to study the brain of homo sapiens, especially carefully - the neocortex and the amygdala.

Next week, Bruce Schneier will speak at the RSA conference and talk about his latest research and thoughts about the link between psychology and computer security. The report promises to be very interesting.

The guru of cryptography himself explains that the purpose of his speech will be completely unpractical methods of cryptography or protection of computer data, namely, reasoning about how people think and what they feel about computer (and not just computer) security. This is really a serious psychological problem worthy of medical study.

“We spend a lot of time at RSA why people don’t protect their computers, why they behave so irrationally. This can only be explained with the help of psychology, says Schneier. “If the computer security industry wants to create commercial products, then we need to understand our consumers.”
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43-year-old cryptologist has long been studying the psychology of users. At the RSA conference, he will tell only the main conclusions reached, and the full results of this research work will be published as a separate book (as you know, Bruce Schneier is a very popular writer).



The new book will be entirely devoted to the human brain. Bruce Schneier says security is both a reality and a sensation. If reality is based on the likelihood of risk, then a sense of security depends on the psychological response to risk, as well as on countermeasures to counter security threats. Very often, our perception of risks does not coincide with reality, and neurology (the science of the brain) should help in explaining this phenomenon.

The perception of reality by the brain often contradicts all logic. This also applies to risk assessment. For example, many ordinary people are more afraid of flying a plane than driving a car, although according to statistics, a plane is much safer. The same absurdities can occur in the human brain when thinking about computer security.

There are two systems in the human brain that assess risks: this is the neocortex (analytical processing of data) and the amygdala (emotions). The problem is that the neocortex is not able to "contradict" the amygdala, which is the older part of the brain. That's why people often make computer security decisions based on emotions — and they can't do anything about it.