Podcasts and Trends and Visions

In this 11 minute podcast, we feature a phone interview with David Ward, President of the American Council on Education. A leading spokesperson for American higher education, David Ward became the 11th president of the American Council on Education on September 1, 2001. Ward is chancellor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin•Madison and the former Charles Kendall Adams University Professor at UW•Madison. Ward participated in a panel session at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference entitled, "The Role of Information Technology in an Age of Access, Affordability, and Accountability".

In this 43 minute podcast, we feature a keynote speech by Bruce Schneier, author and Chief Technology Officer for BT Counterpane, Inc. This speech was delivered at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington on October 26th, 2007. It is entitled "Bruce Schneier on Information Security: Ten Trends".

Surveying current trends in information security, it’s clear that a myriad of forces are at work. But fundamentally, security is all about economics: both attacker and defender are trying to maximize the return on their investments. Economics can both explain why security fails so often and offer new solutions for its success. For example, often the people who could protect a system are not those who suffer the costs of failure. Changing these economic incentives will do more to improve security than will more technology.