Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 12 down vote favorite
2

Which is the appropriate word to be used in the sentence:

The system we were testing was determined to be insecure/unsecure.

The usage is in the context of security, specifically a lack thereof.

I've always said insecure, because I didn't believe unsecure was a word (although unsecured is). Even as I type this, I'm getting a spell check complaint about it. However, I was laughed at once when I called a particular device "insecure."

share|improve this question
I'm not surprised they laughed at insecure device. It's pretty rare. But so is unsecure device. Both only get 2-3K Google hits when in quotes. I get orders of magnitude more hits for pretty meaningless things like blue, soft, short, sticky device. – FumbleFingers Apr 6 '11 at 2:47
@Fumble, I don't know why someone would laugh at "insecure device". One possibility is that they thought of the emotional meaning (not self-confident). That construction sounds normal. You're right that the exact phrase is pretty rare, but very similar constructions (insecure software, insecure computer, insecure system) are more common. – Matthew Flaschen Apr 6 '11 at 17:41
@Mathew: I personally wouldn't laugh at either adjective applied to a device. I don't really care whether I read/write insecure or unsecure, but clearly 'standard' usage is overwhelmingly insecure. What surprised me was that to the world at large, apparently, 'devices' aren't normally evaluated in terms of their security. It's mostly 'systems', 'protocols', 'communications channels', and such. – FumbleFingers Apr 6 '11 at 19:27

5 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

I agree with Wayne Johnston, but will add some examples. Insecurity has always meant to me a lack or deficiency of security (in whatever context it is used), as opposed to a potentially secure system not being secure at this present time.

Though, I don't think it's black and white. Here are some examples of how I might use in/un-secure.

He was insecure and felt anxious when he went out with his friends.

The system is insecure and needs work before we can roll it out to production.

On the otherhand:

Your bike is unsecured. Don't you have a lock for it?

The rope was unsecured. If he didn't find a hook or tree to secure it soon, the truck would fall into the ravine.

share|improve this answer
3  
+1 for the examples. – Wayne Johnston Apr 6 '11 at 3:04
3  
But you haven't given any examples of "unsecure". "Unsecured" is quite different. – Colin Fine Apr 6 '11 at 13:11
Unsecure isn't a word, as far people here are inclined to say. That's why I didn't use it. – Nick Bedford Apr 6 '11 at 14:36
up vote 9 down vote

Insecure means lacking in security. Unsecured means not secured, not fastened, or not guaranteed. *Unsecure is not a word as far as I can tell.

In your example the correct usage is insecure, meaning that the security of the system was found to be lacking.

The statement, "The system we were testing was determined to be unsecured," would mean that the security was disabled, not that it was deficient.

share|improve this answer
2  
The OED lists "unsecure" as obsolete (and has examples from 1656 to 1729). – Colin Fine Apr 6 '11 at 13:17
I would also accept "unsecured" meaning "no security at all", which is backed up by Dictionary.com's dictionaries. It would still be appropriate even if the security were not deliberately disabled. – Matthew Flaschen Apr 6 '11 at 17:36
up vote 0 down vote

Wikipedia offers a fairly lengthy article on computer insecurity, while unsecurity returns results mostly about the United Nations Security Council. Good enough for me.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

In the context of computer security, I would actually recommend "nonsecure"; a system is secure if it is reasonably well protected against intrusion, and nonsecure if it lacks some or all reasonable measures of protection. (Note that "secure" does not guarantee that a successful intrusion is impossible, only unlikely.)

Dictionaries haven't entirely caught up to this usage yet (dictionary.com doesn't have 'nonsecure' but m-w.com does, for example) but it's fairly standard in the computer security field.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

As a system never really is totally secure, you might want to use sufficient/insufficient security instead, which would circumvent the unusual unsecure/insecure phrase:

The system we were testing was determined to have sufficient security.

The system we were testing was determined to have insufficient secturity.

Sufficient security would mean that the system has reasonable security measures given it's specific situation.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.