Some of the security on the Internet is based on "certificates"; different authorities provide trusted certificates to say that A is really A (i.e., http://google.com is really Google). ComputerWorld has a piece on some hackers who got into a Dutch authority and got the certificates for the CIA and Mossad. It's a reminder of potential problems in designed and centralized systems: the more security is concentrated in one place, the greater the rewards for a successful hack job. If I never provide my credit card number on line, it's never at risk. If I provide it to Amazon, along with 100,000,000 other people, the rewards to a hacker of getting into Amazon's charge card database are enormous.
Buried in this post at edge.org (hat tip Marginal Revolution) is a similar consideration of "smart cars"--the idea is that once all our cars are smart, they can operate much more efficiently than today. But, as the writer observes, it also means the rare accident could be horrendous. (Just as railroads increased the possible top-end death toll from one accident by orders of magnitude over stagecoaches.)
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