The Sex Life of Tables
What Happens When Databases About You Mate
By Wes Kussmaul
Two or more tables of information about you, governed by the finest privacy statements, can mate in the middle of the night, on a server on some Asian outpost, producing a “join” that is not accountable to anyone. The sex habits of relational databases are as private as privacy policies are public. Joins are ephemeral—they happen and then they vanish. Their progeny is a bit of information about you that, after perhaps mating with another dozen or so products of such joins around the world, form a very revealing picture of you.
Joins can be immensely powerful. Tracking down their source can take months and years of intelligent sleuthing, during which time another few thousand generations of joins have come and gone and wreaked their havoc. If Stephen Hawking is right--if computer viruses are a form of life--they are primitive, asexual organisms. Table joins, by contrast, produce a more highly evolved, sexual, and potentially more powerful life form.
Law, organizational accountability, and identifiable collections of information are comforting concepts when our privacy is threatened. But these concepts, as they are typically invoked by those who comment on privacy issues, can be meaningless.
Wes Kussmaul, founder of the company that popularized the Internet and author of Quiet Enjoyment, adds his voice to the growing outcry over the erosion of privacy and security that is facilitated by designs based upon old “outdoor” assumptions about online spaces. He then offers a solution – the Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure – which can not only stop this new threat to our privacy but eliminate spyware, spam, predation, phishing attacks and other vulnerabilities. Wes shows us how we can protect ourselves, our family, our community, and most of all our privacy.
What the experts say: “Read this book” --Dan Geer, CTO Verdaysys and noted security expert
“Wes Kussmaul brought the internet into our homes and businesses when he founded Delphi.” [He shows us] “…today, the right we have to use our home and our business premises as we see fit, as long as we don’t bother others in doing so, gets lost when you spend 20 minutes a day getting rid of spam, and even more time in fear of contracting a virus. The worst thing is, the cops don’t even know who the bad guys are.” --Chris Hynes, founding partner, Hastings Equity Partners; former Executive VP, State Street Bank & Trust Company; co-founder of the FIX Financial Transaction Protocol.
“Wes Kussmaul has produced some phenomenal works in the area of privacy, trust, and authentication. His work is important in this age of dramatic insecurity and The Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure provides a comprehensive and workable framework for a better digital future. Kussmaul is one to listen to!"” --Noam Eppel, Senior Security Consultant, Vivica Information Security Inc.
340 pages, paperback | Publisher: PKIPress