We can’t be confident we’ll have the right future solutions in the information age if we don’t make the effort to understand the problems. That means all involved have to have a sound, cross-disciplinary grasp of:

- current, emerging and future trends in computers and networking

- government, commercial sector and public security awareness, maturity of response and appetite for risk

- and the broader landscape of vulnerabilities and requirements for computers, networks, and information-assurance products and services.

Many of us look at these issues, and understand different aspects with different levels of expertise. No-one outdoes the security services, research bodies or specialist suppliers at what they do in their own field, but at the same time none of these experts know so much they can’t learn from others. When an expert paediatrician presents statistically misleading evidence the consequences for the innocent defendant are disastrous.

That’s the purpose of Blindside. The blog is meant to be a safe place to share opinions, news or comment across sectors and disciplines. And the wiki is a repository where we canbuild a single evolving picture of what’s coming down the track, the opportunities and threats we perceive and how we believe different commuities might respond.

It’s driven from an information-assurance perspective because good information assurance can help overcome the problems and make the most of the opportunities of emerging IT. But only if we recognise the full richness and extent what’s going on first, including what’s coming up on the Blindside.