Wrap-Up

It's important to understand that security is never a point of arrival. It's always a balancing and rebalancing of the need for convenient access to things versus the need to protect them.

Never let someone else make security decisions for you when it has to do with YOUR data. Your time is valuable, and the time you spend creating documents and data is valuable too. We are all vulnerable to security decisions made by others about data having to do with US - how your social security and bank account numbers are protected, for example - and part of your OWN security is being thoughtful and careful about who you give important data about yourself to. And if you find yourself the custodian of sensitive data about other people - even lists of names and addresses can be desirable targets to unscrupulous parties - then you should protect it at least as rigorously as you protect your own.

Being aware of the sorts of things that CAN happen and the sorts of risks they might pose is half of the battle, and of course the entire point of this presentation.

If you have comments, questions, clarifications or additions for this document, please do send them on to me; see the contact page for contact information. I hope you found this presentation useful.