Security or Paranoia?

If you ask me, I could go on and on about cybersecurity. You might end up wishing you’d never asked.

Helping to manage security for clients means I answer security questions more and more often, and the answer can be a bummer. Staying secure and private online takes work; granted, it’s not a ton of work, but it’s no fun, either. The adage in the field is that security is the enemy of convenience. My (our) job is to balance security and convenience the best I can. That might seem strange--at first glance, don’t we want to be as secure as possible? Well, no. We might say that security and functionality are opposites. The ‘most secure’ solution for your data is a local laptop with no internet connection, which you keep in a large vault with one outlet. That’s not helpful if you ever need to travel, use the internet, or do the basic functions of most modern jobs. To that end, we grant concessions, knowing they aren’t as safe until we reach a balance where you can do your job while being reasonably safe. That’s why it’s important to have experts who can help you identify what tradeoffs are worth it, but you’re reading this, so you already knew that.

Recently, I switched almost every service I use to a more privacy-focused alternative--email, cloud storage, operating system, and more. It was not convenient, but admittedly, part of the pull was what I’d learn by switching. I’ve found I sleep better at night knowing that my email data isn’t being utilized to sell me more stuff or that my file storage provider can’t access my data without half of the encryption key. So, was the work worth it?

That question is hard to answer; my experience in the industry teaches me that, yes, absolutely it is! But I suspect all of us have at least one expert whose recommendations we don’t subscribe to, for whatever reason. Mechanics, doctors, personal trainers, career coaches, accountants, and more. We can’t do it all.

So, what do we do? I’m not saying you should lock your computer up in a vault with no Wi-Fi, and that it’s normal to trust the big cloud service providers. I would encourage you to take a second look and see if there isn’t a small step you can take today to keep your data secure and private. I’m reminded of one YouTube cartoon artist’s username, “Reject Convenience,” and I commend to you his video on privacy-focused alternatives and what to do if you feel you can’t switch.

I’ll finish this ramble with a quote I picked up from Louis Rossman, an internet privacy advocate and IT veteran– “the only companies you can trust with your data are the companies that don’t have it”. Let that serve as a reminder that no answer to the problem of convenience and security is perfect, but it’s always a good day to take one step closer to security and privacy. Until next time, stay safe out there!