Security and the AND/OR question

I'm back, and it's as if I never left. Mainly because I have exactly 0 readers :P.

Today's little rant is about something I will forever go back and forth on, security versus convenience. To understand why I am so vacillatory on the subject you need to know two things about me. First, I am lazy, the more I can do with as little effort as possible the happier I generally am. Second, I am paranoid, while I'm not likely to go out and buy an old bank vault to live in, I tend to assume that not only is just about everyone out to get me, but they are significantly more clever, knowledgeable, and determined than they appear to be.

So, these points, combined with my love of security has led me to the question that most people have about security. How miserable do I have to be to feel secure?

The tradeoff is most often seen in the debates about the TSA lately. On the one hand, nobody wants the policy to be "colonoscopies for everybody" while on the other one news story about a guy with a pipe bomb in his rectum would send the public into frenzied rioting. Thankfully we've calmed down a bit since 9/11, and are beginning to understand that security is IMPERFECT. However, inconvenience versus security is just as prominent as ever.

I want to talk about a specific example of this, the AND/OR problem. What is the AND/OR problem? It's the phenomenon wherein adding an additional security check that is required increases security and inconvenience, whereas adding an additional security check as an ALTERNATIVE lowers security and inconvenience.

a quick example of this. Your front door most likely opens with a key (specifically a pin and tumble key, likely with five pins, even more specifically it's likely a Schlage or Kwikset). Imagine, for a moment, that we also installed an RFID reader in the door, and hitched it to the lock. If either the RFID or the key unlock the lock, then it's convenient. you could just swipe your RFID in your pocket, and not have to put down your groceries, or if you forget your wallet just use the key. If BOTH are needed, it is more secure, because even if someone copies your key or can pick the lock they need the RFID, or even if they bypass the RFID they need the key.

Now, the advancement doesn't always balance out, you can accomplish a net gain. For instance, if you build the RFID into the key, you have made things more secure, but not much more inconvenient (I say much more because, among other things, if the power goes out, your RFID reader won't work). You've still made things more secure, because someone trying to get in now needs to bypass TWO mechanisms, but haven't changed your daily routine at all. however, this makes stealing the key just as effective as it was before.

The reason I decided to talk about this today was I was looking at an article on home automation. Home automation is basically webenabling devices in your home so you can automate them, or control them from anywhere with net access. These things can be anything from opening your garage door, to turning on lights or controlling the temperature in your house. In general I find home automation bland as I can't use it to make my kitchen prepare dinner for me, or have my desk read and summarize my homework for the night. Turning on lights is well and good, but I can get a timer for $4 to do that for me. However, the few uses i can come up with for it is things like, your neighbor asks to borrow a snow shovel, so you open your garage so they can go in and get it (probably better with security cameras), and then close it behind them. Aren't you a good neighbor. Anyway, the next interesting use is, say you leave the house, do the daily grind thing, then get home, only to realize your keys are in your OTHER pants... well crabcakes. With an internet enabled lock, you can call your friend, tell them to log into your house's site, and open the front door for you. You then immediately change the password of course, but you've saved yourself a good amount of headache.


Do you see where the AND/OR problem comes up? By adding the internet lock as an OR you've basically just allowed anyone with a laptop and some basic hacking skillz to walk right in your front door. Of course, if you added it as an AND you'd have to log in through your smart phone (if you don't have a smartphone and are doing home automation... well, you're doing it wrong) as well as use your key. Secure, but a bit of a pain, especially if you phone just died...

Now, this leads me to the clear conclusion that I don't want to go near home automation yet, but does bring up the question of how you FIX the AND/OR problem. Namely, how can you combine home automation convenience, with the security of not having the internet be able to set your toaster to "kill" without your knowledge.

It's not as easy as integrating the RFID with the key, but I'm sure there is a creative and simple answer out there, so what do you think?