Meanings
Schneier's law1
alternative Schneier's Law
- computer securityAn informal law holding that anyone can create a security system they cannot personally break.
RSA was one of the few fundamental encryption protocols that had not succumbed to Schneier's law in more than thirty years.
2022, Andy Greenberg, Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, unnumbered page2 more examples
This is especially true if you want to design security systems and not just implement them. Remember Schneier’s Law: “Any person can invent a security system so clever that she or he can’t think of how to break it.”
2014, Bruce Schneir, Carry On: Sound Advice from Schneir on Security, page 34One unifying truth of computer security is described by Schneier's Law (1998) [267]: Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break. It's not even hard.
2022, Diego Miranda-Saavedra, How to Think About Data Science, page 184
Schneier's Law2
- computerAlternative letter-case form of Schneier's law.
Origin
Coined by Canadian-British-American blogger, journalist, and science fiction author Cory Doctorow in a 2004 speech with reference to a 1998 quote from security expert Bruce Schneier.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Schneier's law. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Schneier's%20law
“Schneier's law.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Schneier's%20law. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Schneier's law,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Schneier's%20law.
Source: Schneier's law on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.