Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • October 25, 2026 10:22 PM

@ Rontea, lurker,

You say,

“Spies are a double-edged sword”

But you forgot to add,

“that cut three ways.”

Hence spies of the active variety that participate/act as well as passively watch and listen are sometimes called “Agents of Chaos”.

The thing is around 1/20th[1] of the US population want to “burn the world down” for fun/entertainment and it is these people that are easily coopted as “Disposable DNA” etc for such spies.

It’s something that is becoming increasingly studied,

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202205/chasing-chaos

And it appears to have at it’s root people that have been failed by the education system thus excluded from opportunity open to others. Seen as an increasing problem in the US and other western nations which observers are saying is part of the current problems in France.

[1] The percentage of the US population –and presumably other populations– is seen as changing. The article was written about half a decade ago and people indicate the numbers have changed since then for the worse. In practice they do change but in small ways that are to do with how society changes it’s views rather than the numbers who have nihilistic view points. In part the non-online MSM have a great deal to do with this as they paint things in terms that used to be covered by,

“If it bleeds it leads”

Mantra seen by proprietors as the fast road to sales thus profits. Thus they are incentivised to view the world in certain ways that are mostly not true but actually develop some truth through cognitive bias.

Clive Robinson • October 26, 2026 2:02 PM

@ ResearcherZero, ALL,

With regards,

“Do cultures without empathy, built purely on convenience, profit, and performance begin to lose grip on reality?”

The simple answer is,

“If not empathy then what drives the profit motive?”

But whilst it is a simple question based on a simple premise ie,

“What price for profit?”

It assumes that it is advantage for a small section of society at the expense of the majority[1].

But after a certain point it is not actually about profit, that is the profit is merely a tool for control of society and the power to enforce such control via Guard Labour and the like. And their are two old sayings that people need to be mindful of.

Firstly, Lord Acton’s observation that,

“All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Secondly the observation of Robert Shea that,

“Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.”

It’s why the studies of leaders in business tend to suggest they suffer from some or all the traits of the personality disorders that originally were grouped as the “Dark Triad” but in less than a decade and a half has been augmented to the “Dark Pentad”[2].

What ever people think, history indicates that “greed” was not a trait of much of civilisation. Untill it came into contact with the “adventures and church men” of Western Europe (England, France, Portugal and Spain). All of whom setup Empires that have since more or less collapsed. Sometimes more amicably than others. In the case of England and Portugal they formed trading empires based on commodity exchange that eventually amalgamated into forms of Common Wealths that gave advantage to both sides of the trade. France and Spain however did not, as they were more interested in taking basic resources for little or nothing in return usually at the point of a sword. That is very short term forceful acquisition not more longterm equitable trade was their aim.

[1] The logic behind this is “finite resources” and basic “slice of the pie” reasoning that says as the population grows on average we all get poorer. But some are “self entitled” and view others as stealing from their entitlement. Such behaviour can be seen in two basic views,

1.1, Harmful for society.
1.2, Beneficial for society.

Depending on what the profit is used for.

The second point can be seen by what the profit actually does for a given society.

That is it can make processes more efficient thus lowering the need for resource wastage. It can also be used to move life forwards by improving science and technology etc again by reducing inefficiency or increasing utility.

By and large all other uses of profit are generally harmful to society at large in one way or another.

But also consider that sometimes even improvements in science and technology are harmful to society. For instance technology used for surveilling society for the ability to control it causes major issues that history indicates will lead to not just civil unrest but civil war or worse. As for science the current drive for AI via Current LLM Systems is becoming increasingly “noticeably bad” for society as a few use it to rapidly find vulnerabilities in others activities then exploit them rapidly.

[2] Back in 2002 “Paulhus and Williams” proposed the first aggregation into a theoretical model that was named as the “Dark Triad”. Which brought together the three distinct but related subclinical traits of

2.1, Narcissismm
2.2, Machiavellianism
2.3, Psychopathy

That all had what was described as “socially aversive connotations”.

In 2015 Paulhus agumented the traits with

2.4, Sadism

To become the “Dark Tetrad” that many still use. However a year later in 2015 Marcus and Zeigler-Hill presented arguement for the Dark Pentad, by the addition of,

2.5, Spitefulness

As a form of general malevolent behaviour by those that lack the power of direct control, and often aimed at a broader group than individuals more normally seen in the other four dark personality traits.

Whilst there is argument about spitefulness as a dark personality trait because it often lacks the trait of “self harm” or even the directivity of “Vindictiveness”. Thus it is seen by some as a more “general personality trait”,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_(sentiment)

Clive Robinson • October 28, 2026 6:30 AM

@ ResearcherZero,

With regards,

“Kash Patel removed the auditors who oversee 702 requests to spy on Americans.”

And,

“Senators that have reviewed the provisions are restrained by law from disclosing the details, but a number of senators who have seen the details regarding 702, say that members of Congress would be shocked if they knew the full facts of what these powers allow.”

I suspect only if they’ve had their heads in the sand for almost their entire political career. The only thing that will shock them is just how careless and blatant those excercising the powers are (think how discredited ICE operators have behaved and regard that as a high water mark with regards those acting under 702).

Which is why,

“The U.S. government has kept secret details about Section 702 that are unknown to elected members of Congress, while the Trump administration has pushed those elected members to renew authorization for the powerful surveillance capabilities that Section 702 grants.”

Should not shock anyone not just Americans but anyone who has eyes to see and ears to listen when their heads are pointed in the right direction.

It’s not to dissimilar to what went on a century ago, only with more modern technology… Thus less manpower needed, thus less risk they become whistleblowers. But with capabilities much much greater in scope so not just a handful of American citizens “enquired into” by each operator per year but thousands. Thus jaded viewpoints for the operators and no incentive to investigate effectively.

From an operator –doing Section 702 work– perspective, if they make one wrong call about an individual being innocent then that is lets just say “career and pension limiting”. Thus like the “No Fly List” once a citizen is on the watch list they are not coming off it untill long after they are dead.

This is only going to get worse as “AI Assists” and in effect those on the list are “found guilty by coincidence or appearance”.

Because Section 702 is in effect a beast, that needs feeding, to keep resources coming through the door and the citizens in check by fear, uncertainty and doubt.

But if you want a recent example of this “just put them on a list” idiotic behaviour that Trump has engendered en mass… Consider what happened in a quiet lane late one evening at the end of September, with people apparently in the process of stealing fuel from UK farms. It’s becoming a more common and quite lucrative crime now fuel prices have dramatically increased.

It just so happens for “safety and expansion” reasons that around most still active RAF bases from WWII the land is kept as agricultural farm land as much as possible.

So it’s where you are going to find large tanks of “agricultural diesel” and similar fuels. And if you visit a large farm you can often smell their location out even though they might be out of sight (as farm fuel thefts have been a regular rural crime since the 1970’s).

At the end of September this year, one such RAF Base that holds one of the largest regular military air shows in Europe is RAF Fairford,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_International_Air_Tattoo

Which is where on Sept 27th UK law enforcement nabbed some young men and three white vans equipped to steal fuel, actually in the process of transferring fuel from van to van hence the odd way they had been parked up (see drone footage shots).

The UK investigated with bomb disposal robots then human search and ended up treating it as a fuel theft incident thus “bailed and put back on the streets” most of those involved.

However Donald Trump immediately claimed online it was “terrorism”… Although as broadcast by UK media no terrorist equipment was found, the vans were nowhere really near the Airbase… And as was pointed out by more trade media there was little or no chance the vehicles could be made to explode or even burn in a way that would cause damage against the USAF assets “on base” at the time.

However though UK Authorities and Politicians said “not terrorism” Donald the Trumper kept on insisting it was…

And the story line has now changed apparently without any physical evidence. And UK Politicals have “jumped on board the Trump Waggon”.

This now gives claims that are in conflict with evidence revealed at the end of september from the time of the arrests. See,

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/27/two-men-charged-raf-fairford

Also note that one of the defendants is in a specialist custom wheel chair for those suffering from long term disability and those sorts of wheel chairs are not at all good for any surface other than flat flooring you would find in a building with lifts or low incline ramps (not that you would want to use them outdoors as they don’t respond well in the wet and can be dangerous).

Also realise that the “new evidence” coming from the proceedings so far are no more than “She says he says” and “He’s such a bad man because others say so…”. And if you think about it, what is being said is in effect “hearsay” at the moment and with no physical evidence has no solid believability so is unlikely to actually prove a case to the standards criminal law usually requires.

So I guess we can expect more from the Trumper to abuse the UK legal process…

But from an “ICT Sec” point of view we might see something else to do with using apps on mobile phones, so time to get a bowl of popcorn or two.

Clive Robinson • October 28, 2026 4:24 PM

@ Bruce, ALL,

Religion over AI, and the human right of respect of human beliefs.

This is one I kind of had seen coming quite some time ago.

A Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI

David Durman, an administrator at the University of Kentucky, said using AI would cause him to offload his thinking and decision making, which would violate his humanist views. He hopes other Americans will rethink their views on AI, too.

“As a humanist, David Durman believes in the importance of the human part of life. That means making his own decisions and making sure his work helps people flourish.

When the University of Kentucky, where the 45-year-old works as a research administrator, started asking employees to use AI in their workflow, he got worried. Durman felt he was being asked to offload his thinking to tools like Microsoft Teams Copilot, Claude and ChatGPT bots in his day-to-day work.

That felt like a violation of his beliefs, he said.

“The process and work involved in thinking through situations, through my work, through my ethics, through the way I handle other people, is a key component in being able to develop myself as a moral person,” he told RNS in a video interview. “And offloading that labor, regardless of whether it’s taxing or not, is undercutting my ability to be a moral actor.”
“

https://religionnews.com/2026/10/26/in-a-first-a-humanist-granted-a-religious-exemption-from-using-ai/

But I assumed the usual profit over human belief would prevail due to Corporatism and neo-con short term thinking…

So I thought just a blip in “situation normal” driving like a runaway horse and carriage into the crashing of the world economy driven by AI investor collapse destroying pensions and savings for college level education and basic rights of ownership etc.

Though in the past few weeks I’ve the feeling that AI is now faster in the way it changes certain aspects of the corporate behaviour thus old neo-con mantras are becoming quickly obsolete and with them many behaviours neo-cons and the hidden hand of the market have relied on in the past.

I’m far from sure where it’s going as it needs two things,

1, More indicators to show trends.
2, Sufficient time to analyse the trends.

So to every one,

“Welcome to a Devils breakfast of uncertainty.”

It’s most probably going to be a bumpy ride.