Strength and Weakness of Information Security: Human Nature

In today’s society, information has become so readily and instantly available that the search engine, Google, has been incorporated into the English vernacular. With this explosive growth of information availability, however, comes increasing concern for security. Today’s information security systems are designed to be highly secure, yet information is leaked anyway, and many of these security failures lie in the human factor—in both creativity and negligence. In “The Psychology of Security,” West discusses the psychology of human risk assessment and why end users make bad security decisions. Humans will always be the weakest link in any information security system because we can create these systems, we can exploit any flaws in the creation of it, and we are imperfect and can be negligent. However, a study of psychology is not enough, at least not individual psychology as described by West. Humans are complex as individuals, but they become a different entity as a group. To study and model whole environments is necessary, as well as using both individual and organizational psychology and also quantitative system dynamics to help create security and privacy policies that adapt to dynamic environments and work with the security technologies today. Adaptability is the key because ultimately, no matter how tightly written and implemented security policies and features are, breaches due to human creativity or negligence can only be mitigated.