Should We Allow Some Potential Terrorist Acts?

While terrorism certainly drives the surveillance business, a growing and influential trend suggests that in many cases, the best solution is to do nothing. Bruce Schneier, perhaps the most famous person in security, suggests that the best response to the Jan 2009 Newark Airport security breach may be to simply accept "this occasional but major inconvenience" and not shutdown the airport.

While this is an unorthodox position with regards to terrorism, the concept of absorbing risks is fundamental to all security decisions. Many high impact events that occur very rarely and would require massive expenses to defeat are logically better to simply absorb. The real debate is whether or not this specific case meets this criteria.