Walled Cities & Gunpowder, Firewalls & Hackers: Ways to Think about Cyber Security & Piracy - Shelly Palmer

Defensive walls have been built around cities since before Joshua fought the battle of Jericho For literally thousands of years if you wanted to protect a collection of assets people livestock intellectual property real estate etc you put them in a city and built a fortified wall If you were really serious about protecting your investment you added a moat or ditch or other obstacle and where possible built on the high groundThis method of defense worked great right up to the 7th or 8th century in China and the 11th through the 13 th centuries in Europe That39s when the gunpowderpowered cannon made defensive walls useless What good is a wall with a big hole in itIf you were a city owner city builder or city dweller in 13th century Europe you might have thought that the best way to survive was to scatter your people livestock intellectual property real estate etc so that it would not be susceptible to invasion from cannonwielding invaders After all a cannon especially a 13th century cannon capable of blowing a hole in a city wall is big and the army that has to move it must stay with it to protect it Scattering about the countryside would protect you from a serious army that used a big cannon to enter a city and pillage itThe funny thing is that39s not what happened The technology the gunpowderpowered cannon forced changes in military strategy political strategy and consumer behavior It also had a profound impact on the quotdoing of lifequot for both the aristocracy and the proletariat Cities did not get smaller amp8211 they got bigger Since cities no longer needed walls all kinds of things were empowered to change Land ownership land use commerce human interaction the distance between the quotcountryquot and the quotcityquot even site selection for town centers adapted to the new paradigmSo what can we learn from the relationship between walled cities and gunpowderThere are myriad lessons but today I39m interested in Cybersecurity Cloud Storage and Firewalls There are several parallels one can draw with respect to the use of walls to guard things A wall can keep primitive invaders at bay for a while but siege engines are the quotantiwallquot and the arms race can go either way on any given dayWhich begs for the question how should one defend a collection of bits in the 21st century If walls can be breached with quotvirtualquot gunpowderpowered weapons how should we think about defense in an open environmentIs it possible to defend a collection of bits when the bits are openly available to everyone on the Internet If it is are there strategic lessons can be learned from urban planners over the past millenniumI think there are But I want to know what you thinkFirst pretend that a highly protected collections of bits like iTunes movies or music or CADCAM B1 Bomber Plans are defended by quotvirtualquot ancient city wallsNow pretend that Anonymous or some other hactivist group has a quotvirtualquot gunpowderpowered cannon and will have no trouble blowing a hole in itNow pretend that the IP stored behind the city walls wants to spread out get bigger and become more valuableHow will it happen Email your ideas to me at shellyshellypalmercom or post something on my FB wall or follow me shellypalmer and send me a dmShelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York39s Onair Tech Expert WNYWTV and the host of Fox Television39s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living He also hosts United Stations Radio Network39s Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology media and entertainment He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC an industryleading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition York House Press 2008 the seminal book about the technological economic and sociological forces that are changing everything Overcoming The Digital Divide How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career York House Press 2011 and Digital Wisdom Thought Leadership for a Connected World York House Press 2013 For more information visit shellypalmercomRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer ReportCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Walled Cities & Gunpowder, Firewalls & Hackers: Ways to Think about Cyber Security & Piracy - Shelly Palmer

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