On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 08:29:55AM -0800, coderman wrote:
retaliation for helping expose intelligence community excesses and illegalities?
Unlikely; not impossible, but I doubt it was actual retaliation. Bruce denies it: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/16/bruce_schneier_leaves_bt/ Schneier told The Register this evening of his departure: "This has nothing to do with the NSA. No, they [BT] weren't happy with me, but they knew that I am an independent thinker and they didn't try to muzzle me in any way. It's just time. I spent seven years at BT, and seven years at Counterpane Internet Security, Inc before BT bought us. It's past time for something new. As to the future: Answer, cloudy; ask again later." Circa 2009 Bruce had some amusing off-the-record stories of previous interactions with the BT hierarchy. Bruce at BT was never a clean fit, but BT profited greatly by, as they say in the article's leaked email, having someone who can challenge their expectations. Staying at a single gig for 14 years is quite remarkable in the tech industry. All that said, there are still things that one Cannot Say when one has $CORP on one's business card. Just as a simple example, the doctrine of "judicial notice" means that if an officer of a corporation makes a public statement about something and the corporation does not publish a correction, a court can assume that the statement is true in a later civil proceeding. The company can counter the presumption or clarify the necessary context by presenting evidence, but it's expensive and means you're burning minutes/pages on refuting nonsense. So execs need to be careful not to say, for example, that "$CORP has poor network security" because that's food for a nuisance lawsuit. I hope Bruce can use his newfound free time to do additional reporting on the docs. Good news! -andy