The More Security, the Less Safe I Feel

This week I attended the annual RSA show in San Francisco. I was literally surrounded by security 24x7, both inside and outside the show. In addition to attending the world's largest electronic security show by day, I was staying at the Hilton near Union Square, which happened to be hosting the Chinese contingency doing the Olympic torch run through SF on Wednesday afternoon. Secret service, SF police and hotel security were everywhere. Despite the tremendous amount of physical security present, I'm not sure if I felt safer. In fact, I felt less safe. I reasoned to myself: the more security, the bigger the threat, right? Wouldn't I just be better off moving down the street someplace else, I wondered. While the thought crossed my mind, I stayed.

The same uneasy feeling hit me while walking the aisles at RSA. Row after row was filled with fantastic security products and solutions, ranging from technology to encrypt and protect my laptop and thumb-drive to high-end anti-spam and anti-virus hardware and software to protect my email, instant messaging or web browsing. If there was ever a time or place where I should feel safer and more confident about my electronic security, it should be at RSA, right? But I didn't. Instead, I felt overwhelmed and uneasy about the state of electronic security. Like my experience at the Hilton, I reasoned: the more electronic security, the bigger the electronic threat and hassle.

I'm not suggesting that my fear about staying at the Hilton or fear about my electronic security is logical or even reasoble. But they are real. And I wonder at what point does the fear or inconvenience become so great, that I actually decide enough is enough. For example, at what point would I have actually decided to check out and move down the street? I really don't know? Likewise with email and the Internet, at what point does emailing or browsing become so dangerous or inconvenient that I decide to stop doing them or doing something radically different? Both thoughts are almost inconceivable. But to assume there isn't a tipping point would be naive in my estimation.

I'm not sure where that tipping point exists, but if feels closer than ever to me.

HAS EMAIL REACHED A TIPPING POINT?

Some people love to hate email. Others hate that they love email. Either way, there’s some degree of hate involved. Despite its prevalence as the de-facto means of communicating – or because of it – email is quickly approaching a critical tipping point, in my humble opinion.

Full disclosure. I work in the email security business, so I probably have a warped perspective on email in general. Still, I don’t believe that we are reaching a tipping point with email simply because of the rising levels of spam and viruses. Today’s security solutions do a pretty darn good job filtering email.

Instead, I think the tipping point is driven largely because existing email technology doesn’t map to normal human behavior. That fact, combined with the volume growth of email has caused email to become a productivity inhibitor versus a productivity enabler.

Wait! Before you chalk me up as another dooms-day nobody (I am a nobody for sure), ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have you ever worked a full day, thought back and wondered, “I know I was at work at my desk all day reading and typing, but I can’t tell you one thing I actually did today.”
2. Have you ever spent two or three times longer looking for something in email than actually using it (e.g., a phone number, a document you needed to read, etc.)?
3. When you absolutely, positively need to communicate with someone, does a tiny voice in your head say, “You better call them just in case they don’t read or miss your email.”
If you answered yes or maybe to some or all of those, then you understand what I’m getting at. There must be a better way.

This blog will explore email productivity, whether it’s getting better or worse, and most importantly, what is anyone doing about it.