Page 66 - Cyber Warnings

Layered Security

Two locks are better than one

By David Share, Director, Amazing Support

Imagine you had a million dollars (or pounds). Heck, let’s go crazy and say you have a billion
dollars. Without a doubt you would want to safeguard your treasure trove as tightly as possible.
How many locks would you create? How many people would you hire to stand guard?

How many gates and walls would you erect? Everyone would answer slightly different, but it
would pretty much equate to the following response: as many as I possibly could. Which begs
to question, what kind of value do you place on your information, and what would you do to
protect it?

The fact is that in this day and age information has significant value. Indeed, it can encapsulate
the life of an entire person in just a few kilobytes of data. However, the sad truth is that the
overwhelming majority of this information and data is poorly protected.

In today’s standards it is like protecting a billion dollars in cash with a zip-tie. It will keep your
valuables safe and sound until someone with a bit of persistence, some technical ability and the
right set of tools comes along and liberates it from you.

At this point in technology and culture, almost everyone is used to a basic layer of security.
Whether it be a pin code, password, key card or key fob, people are used to entering, saying or
swiping their way to gain access. In theory it should be easy for them to add a second layer of
security to their routine. But, this is easier said than done.

Two pieces of behavior makes the switch all that much harder: habit and convenience. People
have been using single layered security for decades now and the habit has been cemented into
their minds.

People are naturally resistant to change and like to stick with the familiar. Change is made
difficult by the mere fact that doing something once is usually easier than doing something
twice. For many entering a code once is pretty convenient, but they put up a fuss when asked
to enter another password.

In order for layered security to be adopted, peoples views regarding this must be changed.
After all, the process cannot be made any easier.

Everyone at this point is quite familiar with the first layer of security. Enter a pin code or
password and access is granted. A secondary layer to authenticate identity simply requires the
user to enter a secondary piece of information.

66 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine October 2016 Edition
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