Security through Obscurity

A grad student at George Mason University published a dissertation that mapped the U.S. fiber-optic network and the national security experts are wigging out:

“He should turn it in to his professor, get his grade – and then they both should burn it,” said Richard Clarke, who until recently was the White House cyberterrorism chief. “The fiber-optic network is our country’s nervous system.”

I think that trying to hide sensitive information rarely works, but by the same token we shouldn’t make the information so widespread as to invite attack. That is, some people (read the article) seem to want to publish sensitive intelligence just because they can…but they shouldn’t.