Leader: The wider lesson of 'insecurity'

Given that enterprise security is a multi-billion dollar business, it comes as a surprise when kids mucking about teach us one of the most useful lessons of the week, month or possibly year.

Today we revealed how O2 has made it easier for customers to unlock their mobile phone. We also revealed how, in theory, O2 has made it easier for criminals to unlock other people's mobile phones.

But O2 says it is aware its system poses a small security risk but it also says it is a loophole it is more than happy to support while the risk is minimal and the benefits of ease of use are considerable.

How do phones get locked? According to a spokesman from O2, one of the most common ways is kids playing practical jokes on one another and changing their PIN codes.

So on the one hand you have the fact there is a very small risk this system could be abused while on the other hand there is the fact users in such instances typically want an immediate and hassle-free way to unlock their phones.

Typically when it comes to security, technical people take a very binary view - there are no degrees of security, there is simply secure and insecure. But what businesses and more pragmatic thinkers are realising is that there are indeed degrees of security, defined by usability.

It's all a question of risk.

What degree of risk do we tolerate to make our lives secure enough without raising barriers that make our lives unnecessarily complicated?

O2 has realised the money and hassle saved by removing the burden on call centres to manually administer PUK codes and the improvement to customer experience at a time when all they want is a working phone actually outweighs the remote chance the approach will throw up any unacceptable risk.

It's a lesson more companies would do well to consider - to balance risk and usability.

And to think, it only took some kids messing about with their mate's mobile phone to highlight the issue.