Security Versus Accessibility
This article details a very important misunderstanding of the concept of “security” in the context of assets and services.
Security Does Not Mean Accessibility
We listen to advertisers and governments use the term “security” all the time and in all cases are never made aware that accessibility is equally important.
- Security is keeping an item inaccessible from people who want to take it away from you.
- Accessibility is allowing only you access to that item when you need it.
Think of it like this. For many years, it has been acknowledged that the most secure storage facility in the world is a Swiss Bank. The problem is that you have to fly to Switzerland to get something out of a safe deposit box stored at that bank. So you see, accessibility is always tightly linked with security.
Your Digital Goods Are Your Assets Too
In this century, you must remember that in addition to your valuable physical items, you also have digital information that is equally important and in recent times, perhaps even more important, as new digital systems continue to replace physical documents, such as house titles, cash, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.
It’s all well and good to say “You’ll own nothing and be happy“, if your happiness, or even your ability to survive, is restricted by inaccessibility of what you need to live.
Having working in IT all of my life, I assure you that accessibility is crucial in providing services to the public. If you have ever deleted a file on your computer and know that you have a backup but are not able to find it, or it is not accessible, then it is effectively lost.
Risk Assessment Drives The Solution
Assessing risk a big job and the scope of a full risk assessment of all of your assets would be beyond the scope of this article and varies from person to person. To fast-track the process for you, I have put down my risk assessment, based on living in Australia, access to the internet via their national broadband network (nbn) and a smartphone. The house is a rental property in the suburbs or Brisbane.
| Asset | Description of Risk | Est. Chance |
|---|---|---|
| House household items | Burgulary | < 1% |
| Physical cash | Loss | < 1% |
| Credit card | 1. nbn or GSM network failure 2. government action blocking access | 1. 20% 2. Increasing every year |
| Money in bank | This is a hard answer but let’s say, some of the current political events and financial events, may well have a major influence of the amount and availability. | Higher risk each year. |
| Documents | Fire | < 1% |
| Confidential digital data including documents, receipts, contracts, etc. | 1. Computer failure 2. Accidental deletion 3. nbn network failure 4. cybercrime – data loss or involuntary encryption | 1. < 1% 2. 2% 3. 20% 4. < 1% |
Now that you have documented the risks for each item, consider the consequences of the events listed in “Description of Risk” section.
While some of the risks may be relatively small, the consequences of them occurring may be devastating.
Based on these risks, in this case, I would recommend the following solution, in order to “manage” the risk. Manage means that if one of these risk events occur, then you the ability to continue your life, including, as a minimum, eating.
If your situation is different, then thinking about the risks and exploring solutions is the best thing you can do. Remember that ultimately, you have to take responsibility yourself of managing the risks. It cannot be done by any other person, business or government.
How To Take Ownership Of Your Security and Accessibility
I have alluded to this before but in 2023, there is only one solution that I can think of that meets the requirement of security and accessibility. It is to buy a fireproof steel safe with fireproof opening mechanism and bolt the safe to a concrete surface such as concrete foundations.
Install A Fireproof Safe
In that safe, you should store, as a minimum:
- A copy of your daily digital files (stored on solid state memory devices such as USB sticks). Details of this can be found in my article on protecting your data.
- A copy of all of your physical official documents, such as:- land titles, certificates, wills, etc.
- Bullion, in sizes that can be used for person-to-person trading.
- Cash, a reserve to enable you to purchase goods for at least a week.
Since you will need to access your safe every day, when you finish work, it needs to be physically readily accessible. So think about the location carefully before bolting it to a concrete foundation.
There Is No Secure Online Storage – Anywhere
Now that you have a physical safe, you need to be wary of anybody, including your government, that promises to keep your things safe, or secure, online!
This is so far from reality that it makes me shiver every time I hear it. Every day, there are incidents of computer systems getting hacked. Major banks get hacked. Government databases get hacked. Large corporations get hacked.
So whether a criminal breaks into your home and takes something, or the criminal lives in another country and gets into your digital data, you will have to deal with the loss in the same way.
If you choose to leave your valuable digital information, in somebody else’s hands, you need to be able to trust that they are honest, in addition to trusting that you can get access to it, when you need it. Keep in mind that trust is earned and we have not seen many corporations, or governments, earn it at the moment.
At least in your home safe, you will know that you have access to your valuable assets when you need them the most.
Consider this a HOWTO on protecting your property in the real world.