Soft security usually refers to security which protects something from harm in quiet and unobtrusive ways; often invisibly and after the fact, rather than with visible barriers before the fact. Soft security can refer to immediate security measures, such as silent burglar alarms or motion detectors, but often refers to more elaborate social security systems such as the moral network in a tightly-knit community such as a cluster of friends on a busy city street. The term has gained widespread use in wiki communities, notably MeatballWiki. A quote from their page on SoftSecurity:
| “ | The idea is to protect the system and its users from harm, in gentle and unobtrusive ways. The opposite of HardSecurity. It follows NonViolence. Instead of using violence, it works architecturally in defense to convince people against attacking and to LimitDamage. It works socially in offense to convince people to be friendly and to get out of the way of people adding value. | ” |
The differentiation between soft security and hard security was first made by Rasmusson and Jansson[1] who used the term hard security for traditional mechanisms like authentication and access control, and soft security for social control mechanisms. Wikipedia documents are a typical example of soft security principles, using discussion pages, history, policies and guidelines, in contrast to traditional document control mechanisms using workflow and authorization.
References
- ^ Lars Rasmusson and Sverker Jansson. Simulated Social Control for Secure Internet Commerce. In Catherine Meadows, editor, Proceedings of the 1996 New Security Paradigms Workshop. ACM, 1996.
