Maginot Lines - Do we need a new approach in securing our secrets

In a recent post on Wired magazine , John Arquilla, professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School gives his view on how Obama, Mr. President-Elect might make a difference in securing information. The idea is that the traditional ways of safeguarding information from unauthorized access no longer work. These protective measures typically consist of firewalls, anti-virus solutions, intrusion detection, etc. A bit like how the French Minister of Defense tried to fend of the Germans during WW I with artillery, machine gun posts, tank obstacles, etc.. While that did not quite work for the French back then, today a similar approach in Cyber security is quite ineffective too, since a determined individual always seems to find a way around those security measures. So what other option do we have? Well, according to Mr. Arquilla, we could consider dropping our defense lines and instead start using strong encryption all the time. This way we also open up the door to storing more and more of our information in the ‘cloud’ of cyberspace. Mr. Arquilla is not the first one to highlight this option and he won’t be the last. Fact is that a lot of hurdles need to be taken, before we can actually get rid of our current Maginot lines. Hurdles such as technology and regulation in general and privacy in specific. Our new president will have a lot on his plate.