I've been a fan of Crypto-gram for ages.  Blogged about it too.  It's author, Bruce Schneier, really knows his stuff.  It's a welcome reminder each month than when dealing with information security -as everyone employed in tech really is- paranoia is a very healthy emotion.

He asked bloggers to help spread the word of a proposed contest on Movie-plot terrorist threats.  These are the kind where (in my words) someone has a maybe valid/maybe invalid idea about how a terrorist can go about their aims, then removes the doubt around their own stupidity by trying (often including proposing great expense) to mitigate the risk.  Sigh.

I'll be tracking the Technorait results for this too :)

I have reprinted Mr Schneier verbatum from this month's Crypto-gram below.


Movie-Plot Threat Contest



NOTE: If you have a blog, please spread the word.

For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for "movie-plot
threats": terrorist fears based on very specific attack scenarios.  Terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists exploding baby carriages in subways, terrorists filling school buses with explosives
-- these are all movie-plot threats.  They're good for scaring people, but it's just silly to build national security policy around them.

But if we're going to worry about unlikely attacks, why can't they be exciting and innovative ones?  If Americans are going to be scared, shouldn't they be scared of things that are really scary?  "Blowing up the Super Bowl" is a movie plot to be sure, but it's not a very good movie.  Let's kick this up a notch.

It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest.  Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with.

Your goal: cause terror.  Make the American people notice.  Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy.  Change the political landscape, or the culture.  The more grandiose the goal, the better.

Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc.

Post your movie plots here on this blog.

Judging will be by me, swayed by popular acclaim in the blog comments section.  The prize will be an autographed copy of Beyond Fear.  And if I can swing it, a phone call with a real live movie producer.

Entries close at the end of the month -- April 30.

This is not an April Fool's joke, although it's in the spirit of the season.  The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, but I hope it also makes a point.  Terrorism is a real threat, but we're not any safer through security measures that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are going to do next.

Good luck.

Post your entries, and read the others, here:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/announcing_movi.html

Movie-plot threats:
http://www.schneier.com/essay-087.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,175951,00.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/exploding_baby.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/02/school_bus_driv.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075765

There are hundreds of ideas here:
http://cockeyed.com/citizen/terror/plans/terrorwatch.html