Balancing Security and Convenience

Last night I met with a group of fellow tech guys at a local restaurant. One of them told us a story about the time he worked for Hughes Aircraft in Canoga Park in the late 1980s. When he needed to dial into the system remotely, he would call the security guard who walk across the campus to the server room, flip a switch to enable the remote connection. When he finished his task, he would call the security guard who walked back to the server room and switched off the access. Now that's good security. Inconvenient, but secure.

There is an inverse relationship between convenience and security:

• Putting on your car's seat belt may be somewhat inconvenient, but it increases your safety significantly.
• Locking the door to your house slows down your access in and out but protects your belongings.
• Entering a password for your PC may be a pain but will keep it from getting infected with spyware and locks out unauthorized users.

When you do your online banking, it's inconvenient to go through multiple screens, have three security questions, etc. But you should expect these precautions because this level of security will protect you against identity theft or having your money stolen.

I don't like it any more than you do when I call my phone company and getting the third degree before I can even tell them what I want. But I need to keep in mind that it's going to be even more of an inconvenience if someone hijacks my account and runs up a huge phone bill.

So keep in mind that although proper security may be a pain, it's well worth the price. For your investment in inconvenience, you are yielding a good return in security.