Security in the Age of the Internet

In the bygone Age of Chivalry, knights on horseback would, when approaching a castle, bring their right hands to their helmets and lift their visors. Often, particularly in eleventh-century Europe, there’d be a blunt protrusion welded onto the visor itself, which would make this display easier, particularly for heavily gauntleted hands numbed by riding and cold. The lifting of the visor was both a show of strength and an act of trust.

 

This is my sword hand and it holds no sword;

I show you my face at the expense of my own protection,

so that you may see me, know me, and trust me as I trust you;

I am not afraid; neither should you fear me.

I approach as a friend, not foe.

 

Conversely, a refusal to lift that same visor would be treated as an act of aggression:

 

I do not know you and look upon you with suspicion
Your visor is down in preparedness for combat

Your hand is at your sword-hilt, ready to draw and strike

 

A thousand years later, the medieval lifting of the visor remains embedded in western culture. It’s morphed, of course, into the ritualised salute seen in military circles, while the more intimate, close-quarters handshake that often followed (a shakedown to again confirm that no weapon was being held or concealed) would, from the eighteenth century, become a matter of cosmopolitan etiquette.

 

In that time, society has, metaphorically, also lifted its own visor. In his article, ‘A time for truth and reconciliation’ for the Financial Times (10 January 2025), Peter Thiel offers a radical take on the liberal apocalypse of President Trump’s recent inauguration. For Thiel, the moment is, to lean on the Greek apokálypsis, an ‘unveiling’ that’s been centuries coming. Clearly a proponent of Big History, like so much of Silicon Valley, Thiel finds the facade of unchecked power – the divine right of kings and its concomitant anciens regime – buoyed by old media, universities, and other bureaucracies seeking to delimit public conversation, falling away to a brave new, internet-driven world, where everything is known and everyone has a voice in the public square. The declassification of material relating to the assassination of JFK, and the release of documents relating to COVID-19 augur, for Thiel, a new, digital age of absolute transparency and free-flow information.

 

Thiel’s is a rallying cry to those already firmly enmeshed with the doctrinal laissez-faire of late capitalism. It’s a witty and, I think, deliberately coy provocation, one that’s already familiar to conspiracy theorists but now repackaged for the socially well-adjusted. And it’s one that downplays real-world consequence, and quietly funnels influence and power into the hands of those who already have it.

If so inclined, one might usefully question precisely how much everyone’s voice is equal in the square, property of the Musk-Bezos-Zuckerberg trinity.  It’s one thing for an anonymous basement-dwelling incel to keyboard-warrior about the dangers of vaccine use, quite another when the US Secretary of Health advises the population to manage disease outbreak with cod liver oil. It’s one thing for a regular internet user to create and disseminate a jokey meme, but it’s quite another when the President of the United States does the same about turning a nation state into a theme park. One could also question just how stable Thiel’s free-flow information is when Trump withholds US intelligence and, overnight, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure gets targeted by an opportunistic Russia; or just how ineffectual old media is, given Trump’s continued propensity to lawyer up on traditional broadcast news outlets.

 

Whatever one’s politics, the shared terrain is this: we have, all of us, become forever-changed citizens of a newly-made, global, digital village, in which the words and deeds of our virtual avatars have the potential for real-world value, harm and consequence. And, therefore, it is a place where who says what matters.

 

In this contemporary, augmented reality, something emerges as a necessity that’s as absolute as it is ancient: the renewed need for an anchored moment of clarity and recognition; a digital handshake; a digital salute; a digital raising of the visor like the knights of old.

 

***

 

New and prospective clients who visit my website are sometimes surprised that, as a matter of course, I ask for their full name, a temporary screenshot of some form of government-issued identification, and, on specific occasions, a low-value bank transfer.

I am upfront and entirely transparent about this, in the way any citizen of the digital realm has every right to expect and demand, and I am always ready to answer any questions, or address any concerns, from those that may be confused by these requirements or find them somehow unnecessary or burdensome.

While designed to be decidedly unobtrusive in themselves, my introductory measures collectively establish a tangible commitment and seriousness on the part of the client. They serve as a form of due diligence that allows me to verify the client’s character and intent; and, more generally, they coagulate a collaborative and mutual trust upon which to build the safe, secure, and trustworthy environment, without which it becomes impossible for me to conduct, with absolute discretion, my most delicate affairs.

 

My light-touch but non-negotiable requirements constitute a lifting of the visor, so to speak, and I cannot emphasise to you enough how they are ultimately there to actively protect both you and myself from potential harm, informing my rigorous security measures, and safeguarding both parties from opportunistic actors seeking, for example, to access and exploit sensitive information; engage in identity theft, or other fraudulent or otherwise malicious activity.

 

Dear knight, I know that you are beleaguered by your cares and weary from your travels. When you approach my castle, with its vigilant guards and strong walls, when you make first contact, and truthfully declare yourself to be of noble intentions, to be no foe but a friend; it’s then that the heavy drawbridge is wound down, the iron-bound portcullis pulled up, and you are made most welcome, with a warm and blushing face, to the soft and yielding, safe and cocooning bliss of my humble abode.

 

I await your arrival here, with glistening eyes and fervid anticipation.