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Maxiontoday at 6:02 AM1 replyview on HN

Obscurity by itself does provide risk reduction.

Think about leaving your bike unlocked in times square, vs. the top of a 7 000 meter mountain in the himalayas.

Which unlocked (unsecure) bike is more likely to be stolen, and ergo has a lower risk attached?

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Obscurity does not help you when the thief has already found your bike, nor is obscurity very helpful for keeping your bike safe if you happen to live in times square.

But if you live at the top of a himalayan peak, you can be fairly certain you're not going to have your bike stolen.


Replies

red-iron-pinetoday at 2:55 PM

the security controls for a bike on a high mountain are not obscurity, they're the lack of oxygen (that kills), the cold (that kills), the height (that kills), and the literal sheer difficulty of getting there.

you could put the bike right on the side of the mountain without any obfuscation and it won't get got because ain't no one gonna die for a bike.

its like how we know where dead people are on Everest but we can't get them down; they serve as landmarks.