2013 has certainly been a watershed year for information security. But to understand how things might subsequently unfold in 2014, it's worth remembering that each and every revelation of 2013 will be processed and acted upon by humans. Humans with their unchanging human nature, and organisations created by us humans, with their similarly unchanging nature.
Centre stage must of course go to Edward Snowden and the ongoing revelations about comprehensive surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
Early on, it looked like we were going to be burdened with yet another instalment of the endless rhetorical battle between the tinfoil hat brigade and anything resembling an authority. But that soon changed. Within weeks, even people with an informed knowledge of the NSA's historical role began to be surprised and then shocked by the scope of its activities.
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