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Does it have to be so complicated?

| June 5, 2010

National Cyber Security Awareness Week reminds us to update our security software regularly, but when it’s a ridiculously complicated obstacle course it’s not surprising that most of us don’t complete it.

Safe online behaviour is not just about telling (and re-telling) people about the do’s and don’ts of online behaviour.

For starters, people don’t always listen and secondly, even when they do, they may not understand how to respond. The internet is only about a decade old and many people have only become users in the last couple of years, a lot of stuff that happens online is still quite foreign and seems unpredictable.

For example, as a knowledgeable ICT user, I am staggered at the unnecessary complexity involved in maintaining my virus protection subscriptions and of maintaining the security settings on things like pc’s and wireless routers.
The problem is not, for the most part, that people are thick or lazy, it is that the products in the marketplace do not often pass what I would call the ‘hassle free’ product test. In other words, no two people are likely to buy and install the same cybersecurity product the same way or have the same user experience. This can often be exacerbated by the ‘help’ that purchasers receive when they contact help desk operators and ask for assistance.
Goodness me, the whole thing is so ridiculously complicated that it is like an obstacle course – and not surprising that most don’t complete it.
So, as a result of initiatives like Cybersecurity Week, vendors of cybersecurity ‘solutions’ make sales consumers (whose fears may even be heightened during Cybersecurity Week!), but the consumers rarely get to confidently experience the benefits of cybersecurity  that were proclaimed to them by either the vendors or, perhaps even the government. This is particularly the case in the SME and SOHO markets.
If I was to apply a motor car analogy, the IT industry has made us users responsible for assembling   safe automobiles and has got us running around with a huge array of tools, constantly fixing and adjusting the cars so that we can keep them safe. The car industry lost the capacity to get away with this behaviour many years ago and I am staggered that the IT industry has not been brought to account before now.
IT IS NOT MY JOB TO MAKE THEIR GEAR CYBERSAFE! And at a broader community level, it is even more ridiculous to expect the elderly, first time users and kids to do so.
Why are there not cybersafety product regulations – like those that regulate other aspects of safety – that impose much greater accountability on vendors for making products both cybersafe and hassle free? 
Unless we can get this right we will not be able to fully exploit the benefits of the digital economy or, for that matter, the NBN.
 

James Kelaher is a director of Smartnet, which provides advice on the digital economy to governments and businesses and a director of QEStel a regional telecommunications company that specialises in high speed wireless broadband. He is also a member of the National Consultative Committee on Security and Risk.

 
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0 Comments

  1. foggy

    June 16, 2010 at 8:37 am

    self taken safety measures

    first of all thank you for saying all the things i was feeling afraid to say.house door locking is something you feel like doing even if you know that fellow outside is faithfully on his daily beat seeing that your street is safe.yes door locking makes you feel secure.i think computer software would come with horror stories that will make you want to do all the safety things obstacles or not, just to get the secure feeling!!