Convenience vs Security

[dos2unix]

This is an age old problem, it's been around long before Linux and computers. Probably thousands of years.
But since this is a Linux forum.. I'll try to limit the scope of this.

I am reminded about an old castle back in medievel times. It was too much trouble to shut and lock the gate every night..
so guess what?

It's the same with Linux, it's a lot easier to do things like turn off appArmor or SELinux.
Sometimes it's easier to give all your user's root privileges (sudo) or just chmod everything to 777.
I've seen systems with password taped to the monitor, or better yet, no password at all. Just press [Enter] and you're in. Just change your sudoers file to ALL=ALL NOPASSWD, then I don't even need to type a passwd to run root commands. It's convenient to use Rufus in iso mode, that way you can add or remove files at your convenience. The down side is... people can add or change files on your USB without you knowing it. Sometimes it's easier to give a shell script or php code root prilieges as well. It's too much trouble to navigate all the users and permission dependencies to make my website work right?
Who needs a firewall?

Now of course these are just a few examples. There are dozens more you can think of.. (Please add them, if you feel it's appropriate). But I'm curious... how many of you like to take security short-cuts because of convenience? Be honest

Don't post anything here, that will compromise your systems, but what do you do... to make working on your computer "more convenient"?

 

[KGIII]

Yup... The two are polar opposites. The only secure computer is one you can't use, preferably shredded and buried in concrete. Even air-gapped systems can be compromised - and have been.

I will point out that we mods may/have/will remove information from posts where the user has seriously compromised their security or privacy. For example, I'll almost certainly edit a post to remove your email address. If you post a copy of your script and I notice it contains login credentials, I'm gonna edit those out.

But, by the time I get to that, the site has already been scraped by a half dozen search engines. (We have pretty limited staff, with some periods of time that are poorly covered.)

 

[Condobloke]

Convenience vs security?!....don't get me started !

Ok you have....so

Relations of mine whom I visit once every pancake day.....sticky tape bits of notepaper all over the pc desk, and the tower and anywhere else that hasn't been adorned yet.....with passwords for every site they visit. Bar none. Yes I discovered their banking password among the clutter.

If this was a household like mine, where the only people to access the pc room is myself and my wife, it may not be so bad....still a really horrible habit to get into but.....

The house in question has teenagers.....and teenagers attract other teenagers and their parents and bros and sisters....and cousins and uncles and aunties......etc etc etc......you get the pic....busy household.

I have offered ad nauseam to install a password manager for them and the offer falls on deaf ears. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make the bloody thing drink.

This conv vs security thingie also applies to browsers....we all know that google and therefore chrome and lord knows how many other browsers leak like a sieve. but we want convenience....we crave it.....and it is far easier to just blaze ahead and get the info we need/ connect to facebook and twitter and all the rest, without anything in place to safeguard our info. You dont think anyone would be interested in your info....or you just don't care??.....you may well be surprised by its worth to other people.

I can't say I blame you....figuring out what the hell a secure browser actually is and maintaining it in that state...is a right royal pita. It is quite easy to spend more time securing the whole show on an ongoing basis, than you do using it for your leisure/business.