Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

#SmartCustody Adversary — Process Fatigue

A few days ago I wrote about Convenience, which was a #SmartCustody adversary that could cause loss of your digital assets because you ignored your security procedures. But, it was for theoretically good reasons. (1/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:21 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

PROCESS FATIGUE is a close cousin: this is another adversary that encourages you to ignore your security procedures, but here it's just because you are overwhelmed, or have become overly familiar or lazy with your procedures over time. (2/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:21 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

We all do this. This isn't meant as a perjorative. It's just a question of solving the problem, not ignoring it. (3/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:21 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

So how do you solve it? The answer is in the name, PROCESS FATIGUE. It's not pure laziness; it's when you have a process for securing your digital assets that overwhelms you. It's too much. (4/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:21 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

One particular source of PROCESS FATIGUE is that every new procedure, new device, skill required or new tech you add to your processes to mitigate the risk of a different adversary makes PROCESS FATIGUE become more risky. (5/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:22 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

PROCESS FATIGUE is a pretty dangerous adversary because it can make you randomly and thoughtlessly ignore parts of your procedure. You instead want to do so specifically and thoughtfully. (6/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:22 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

Another risk with PROCESS FATIGUE is becoming so overwhelmed that you skip the process entirely. For instance, the Glacier Protocol https://glacierprotocol.org process is quite strong, but I know even some of the contributors to it keep saying “I plan on implementing it soon”. (7/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:22 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

The solution goes back to the core idea that #SmartCustody is all about making choices, about figuring out which adversaries are the most dangerous and which aren't, and focus on the most dangerous first. PROCESS FATIGUE is likely one of them. (8/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:22 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

That's the heart of our risk-modeling: looking at the various problems that you face and deciding which are the most crucial to solve. In this case, you have to determine is if something is MORE dangerous than the PROCESS FATIGUE it might create or less. (9/12)

7/8/2020, 12:56:22 PM

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