Everything Is Broken

While reading this thread on Product Development I came upon this excellent Quinn Norton piece on the dangerous world of software, Everything Is Broken. In it, she explains how fragile our entire ecosystem is and how exploitable every bit of it is. It may be a bit doom and gloom on the surface but it's an absolutely fascinating read.

The piece discusses how every piece of software has some 0day sploit waiting to be unwrapped and that The Intelligence Community (the IC) is well aware of many of them and uses them to their advantage. The exploitation of software and the exploitation of privacy are intrinsically tied together. That's probably the most oppressive piece of the article but it takes an uplifting, rallying, turn that I will share in part below:

The problem with the normals and tech is the same as the problem with the normals and politics, or society in general. People believe they are powerless and alone, but the only thing that keeps people powerless and alone is that same belief. People, working together, are immensely and terrifyingly powerful.

There is certainly a limit to what an organized movement of people who share a mutual dream can do, but we haven't found it yet.

Highly suggest reading it top to bottom, whenever you have time. It's a nice reminder of the potential power we all have if we're willing to use, despite the zero day dangers around us.