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| Is our love for convenience what got us into this hacking nightmare? |
OPINION
The latest news of WIRED reporter Mat Honan's epic hacking is still fresh on our minds, with reports (such as this one) filtering in every moment, making a sensational splash in the world of internet communications.
Of course, for the next week the internet will be flooded with rants about how Apple and Amazon are to blame and more should be done to protect customer security.
The fact is, however, our constant search for the "easy way" combined with an insatiable desire to increase productivity are exactly what got us into this mess in the first place.
The iCloud Era
I will be the first one to admit; I love the era in which we live. An era where information is available on demand. Where all my personal details can be streamlined and packaged into neat little mobile applications. Where I can practically leave my brain at home and let the smartphone do my thinking.
I was thrilled to death when I first got a taste of Google Docs and considered the implications it held for increased productivity, networking and telecommuting work. I was in awe when I discovered PayPal could be linked to nearly anything I want to buy online. The point is, I love the convenience of this interconnected world the iCloud phenomena has produced.
However, that being said, I am also one of the first to become annoyed with customer service that expects me to remember a password I set up three years ago with both digits and letters, and if I cannot provide a number of obscure informational tidbits to verify my account, I am just SOL.
It is for this same reason, so many people in America are still using password1 or the names and birthdates of important family members as their digital passcodes. After all, coming up with something unique is "just too difficult".
It is because of people like me, companies such as Nuance are searching for ways to make identity validation simpler so we don't have to be "bothered" so much.
By producing the latest thing in Biometric technology, Nuance is currently working on a security system which will use ones unique vocals as a confirmation of ones identity. This will be integrated into a Siri-Like assistant for apps called "NIna". What this means is a person need do little more than speak and viola! - access is open to personal accounts, bills, banking information and more. This falls right in line with other biometric technologies that have been utilized such as iris recognition and the fingerprint swipe.
Security vs. Convenience: Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It Too?
The creation of such technologies suggests that today's consumer is looking for anything that allows us put all our eggs in a basket while confirming the basket is actually ours, with little thought or difficulty.
I am not sure if anyone else has picked up on the absurdity of the notion that we can both have our cake and eat it too - have streamlined personal data that is easy to access and also impenetrably secure.
I'm sorry friends; the two simply can't exist together.
At some point we, as a global society, will have to realize, that, as convenient and incredibly enticing streamlining every portion of our existence is, perhaps it is this desire for everything to be easy, to cater to our desires, that will be our ultimate unraveling.
Though Apple and Amazon are the most recent scapegoats of breached security, rest assured, they won't be the last.
Each day we will continue to read stories of the latest hacking offense but for now does it really matter? Do we love our convenience more than our security?
What are your thoughts on this matter? Sound off in the comments section below.
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