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There is a balance, and it swings heavily in the direction of never ever ever compromising security.



Your reply made me smile. You're quite right, but only up to a point. An emphasis on security that compromises usability can backfire and start to make things less secure.

For example, enforcing a 32 character passphrase with at least 1 non-alphanumeric character would be incredibly secure, but users will start writing down their password on post-its near their terminals, and suddenly all that 'security' evaporates because you've introduced an artificial weak link.

In a small way better usability enhances security by making the user less likely to get things wrong.


Compromising the lock is different than choosing the type of lock.




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