Schneier, Snowden and Deadmen

So I am a huge fan of Schneier, he is one of the finest minds of our times. He writes about security, and society, and what happens when aspects of popular perception meet with cutting edge security technology. You must subscribe to his monthly newletter: Crypto-Gram, and spend a few hours every month to know whats really going on in security around the world. So much of my thinking has been shaped by his words and ideas.

Today I read his blog post, and for the first time I felt I can better him, or find a flaw in his thinking.

So this Snowden guy is causing quite a drama these days. He is making the world a better place, and is smart.

One of the aspects of his "smartness" is what Schneier commented on today, the dead mans switch. Its when you set things up such that if you die something bad happens, so that it reduces peoples incentive to kill someone, in this case Snowden fears US intelligence agencies (such a sad commentary on what the world has come to).

And Schneier suggests in his blog post:

I'm not sure he's thought this through, though. I would be more worried that someone would kill me in order to get the documents released than I would be that someone would kill me to prevent the documents from being released. Any real-world situation involves multiple adversaries, and it's important to keep all of them in mind when designing a security system.

And I would like to say Mr Schneier, that Snowden has indeed thought this through. What you seem to be not be getting is that Snowden is not bothered about the world as much as his personal security. If you accept this, then you will see that the deadmans switch not only prevents some people from killing you, but it also forces others to make sure you stay alive, and this is what Snowden is trying to do.

With this move Snowden has forced US intelligence agencies to put all their resources to make sure Snowden stays alive, and its a brilliant move. Please do not take it away from him by saying he hasn't thought things through.