Blogathon 2/15 – it’s called security for a reason

Even though I’m a bit of a professional nomad, the environments I work in tend to have layers of physical security.

Sometimes there will be a high fence with CCTV cameras outside, and a uniformed member of staff in a box with *very* thick glass.

And there will be a keypad- or electronic ID card-triggered entry system in to the buildings.

Sometimes there will be a high fence with CCTV cameras outside and, two metres away, another high fence. There may be unfriendly-looking dogs patrolling a ‘no-mans land’  between the two fences. There may be a patrol of uniformed members of staff, carrying an SA-80 each, inside the second fence.

And again, there will be a keypad- or electronic ID card-triggered entry system in to the buildings.

My point is that security exists – always – and that the security in each place will be in direct proportion to the type of risk that having that place unsecured could cause.

Extremely sensitive place = extremely secure layers.

And so on.

The same is true of data.

You own your personal data.

And you protect it.

You don’t lend people your credit cards and your PIN.

You don’t let people borrow your passport.

You don’t hand out your bank account details to every Tom, every Dick, and every Harry.

No, you don’t do these things.

You have more sense than that.

Similarly, your electronic data is protected.

When you go online and check your bank statement, and pay a bill, the website you’re accessing has electronic security wrapped around it.

The front-end and back-end data will be extensively protected by various electronic security techniques.

This is called…

Encryption.

Encryption is a bit of a blunt-edged name, but essentially what it boils down to, is a tool that protects your electronic data from criminal use.

If we had no electronic security – encryption – your personal data would be exposed (not ‘at risk’, it would be exposed) to every malicious mind in the world.

If we had no electronic security – encryption – your emails could be read by anybody.

Anywhere.

If we had no electronic security – encryption – every transaction on the internet (from bidding on eBay through to electronic payments, through to even registering to vote – which, by the way, is a government initiative now) would be exposed to every single nefarious mind, in every country in the world.

Electronic security – encryption – is the ultimate means of protecting your data.

And of protecting you.

And your family.

Because fraud, and identity theft, will adversely affect everyone in your family.

So it comes as something of a shock that David Cameron, the Prime Minister to Her Brittanic Majesty, has decided that electronic security (encryption) is a Very Bad Thing.

Not only is electronic security (encryption) a Very Bad Thing, but he has pledged to get rid of it in this country.

Fortunately some people – perhaps they have a greater understanding of the risks that would sit alongside not protecting electronic data – are calling David Cameron out on his anti-security (encryption) pledge.

I think ‘absurd’ is quite a kind word.

But really, someone in the Prime Minister’s Office thought it would be a good idea for the man to make such a moronic statement?

Perhaps these people need to be placed in a different kind of secure place.

A place with steel bars and high fences.

A place with an entrance, but no exit.

And maybe straightjackets.

For their own safety.

And security.