Do you carry cash?

“Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic”

– Arthur C. Clarke

I love the magic of contactless payment. I’ve spent decades in high-tech industries and yet still marvel at the ability to wave my mobile supercomputer to pay for goods and services.

From facial recognition, mobile computing and networking to web-services and public-key encryption. The myriad layers of stacked technological advances here is absolutely mind-blowing. That means, however that thousands of advanced features must all work, all the time. So…

Well… I’m just saying… It’s kinda risky to bet your personal security on a hugely complex system. Especially when the alternative is so simple – just keep some cash in your pocket.

Apologies if this reads a little like a commercial for a new ‘preppers’ society. Theres no need to don a tin-foil hat or start storing canned peaches in your garden bunker. We’re talking tiny changes here. Carrying cash is a simple and powerful form of resilience. You won’t need the old fat wallet, I’m just recommending that you carry three different forms of payment:

• Fifty squid in your wallet – €20+€20+€10 neatly folded. You’ll probably never use it.
• You should carry at least one debit card – helps you get cash and pay for stuff when your phone is borked. You’ll need an ID card anyway, just add a payment card.
• Your phone – charged. I’m guessing you had this step nailed already.

This is a small example of personal resilience. The impact of cyber resilience faults is much bigger but it’s the same fundamental principle. When complex systems fail they can fail really badly. As a society we’re continually surprised by predictable events and over-reliance on complexity exposes you to unnecessary risk.

If you can use simple low-cost mechanisms to mitigate the risk of systems failure, why wouldn’t you?

I’m asking you to be a ‘little’ bit skeptical. Once you start looking at the world through a risk-based lens you’ll get new insights. You’ll start ‘thinking in bets’ and looking at the odds. Why not bury a fifty in your wallet and be the hero who brings home the dinner after the next blackout?

You might even start looking around at other low-cost, high-leverage actions you could take to protect yourself and your business.

Cough, cough.. Passwords.