100 years in IT …

… sounds like a lot. if you look back at the last 30 years it’s really amazing what has changed in terms of storage capacity and speed. now think about the next 100 years. scientists say we will not be able to keep up with moore’s law (to double capacity/speed every 18 month), but there’s always something new coming out, new materials, new ideas.

however what i see often is certificates (private keys, code signing etc) that have a 100 year life. no system will survive that long, and if you upgrade you’ll get a new SSL or TLS certificate etc. some old files you’ll keep though, and there’s the danger. you give away old servers, old disks etc but then some numbers like your SSN or your birthdate stay the same for many years. there is a chance too that you’ll get hacked, or one of the companies you do business with.

many cracking or hacker attempts though would be easily prevented IF we would use ‘expiration dates’ more thoughtful. what seems secure today might be the joke for brute-force-attackers in 5 years from now. just set a realistic expiry date for your certs!