From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Thu Aug 07 2008 - 04:46:57 CDT

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http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/46834-1.html

By William Jackson
GCN.com
08/06/08

LAS VEGAS — Uncertainty is a fact of life, and the only thing we can be
certain of is the unexpected, information technology gadfly Ian Angell
said in a speech today to an audience of geeks, many of whom spend their
days looking for ways to bring order to their worlds through computers.
“If you become complacent, computers will really screw you up,” he
warned.

Angell, a professor of information systems at the London School of
Economics, made his dark statements in the opening keynote address for
the Black Hat Briefings being held here this week. The professor, dubbed
the “Angell of Doom” in his native Britain, is a self-described
contrarian.

“When I smell flowers, I think funeral,” he said.

Angell has made a career of being skeptical about the idea that computer
technology can bring order to our lives. Computers deal well with
objective calculations, but they do not deal well with complexity and
subjective behavior, he said. Linking computers with humans creates such
complexity that even when technology works as intended it introduces
additional problems through unintended consequences.

[...]

_______________________________________________
Attend Black Hat USA, August 2-7 in Las Vegas,
the world's premier technical event for ICT security experts.
Featuring 40 hands-on training courses and 80 Briefings
presentations with lots of new content and new tools.
Network with 4,000 delegates from 50 nations.
Visit product displays by 30 top sponsors in
a relaxed setting. http://www.blackhat.com

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