Page 37 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2023
P. 37
Complexity is Still the Enemy of Security
Ease of Use, Ease of Integration Encourages Data Protection
By Gregory Hoffer, CEO of Coviant Software
In 1999 noted cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier wrote in his Schneier on Security blog that, “The worst
enemy of security is complexity. This has been true since the beginning of computers, and it’s likely to
be true for the foreseeable future.” In the context of that post Schneier explained that complexities
inherent in the design of technology products made it difficult to simultaneously test whether the product
was secure. Whether software, hardware, or interconnected systems, you built a product to do a certain
job and only when completed could it be tested to see if it was secure. Even then, Schneier observed,
testing for security was not a high priority.
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