Matt always has a great perspective on these things. At one of his talks I attended he commented on the difference between the 'security' business and the 'intelligence' business and noted that they both depended heavily on obfuscation and misdirection. Prior to that I had never really connected them in that way, but in hindsight it seemed amazingly obvious. Interesting times indeed.
Matt Blaze is probably the most important computer scientist at the intersection of security & privacy; look at the relatively recent work his group did on wiretaps for a good example of why. He's not a grandstander.
