When Security Gets in the Way
Don Norman is my hero for today.
Rarely do I read something and come away thinking, “this hits the nail right on the head. I can’t possibly think of a more eloquent way to say what is being said.” But Don manages to do just this in his essay about usability in security.
Don understands that security measures have diminishing points of return. He intuitively knows that asking more and more of users doesn’t necessarily make them more secure. He sees the underlying reasons why security is failing. He gets it.
I could go on and on, but I’m just going to ask you to take a few minutes out of your day and read his essay. Read it slowly and carefully, then print out copies and hand them to your colleagues.
Finally, think about some of the ways you may be unwittingly making security problems worse. Consider if your approach could use some fine tuning. Simplify, re-examine and take chances.