Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.07.14
What's the difference between "Safety" and "Security" (both translate to Sicherheit in German)?
Safety protects against random, accidental harm; security protects against deliberate, adaptive attackers.
| Safety | Security | |
|---|---|---|
| Protects against | accidental, unwanted events | intentional acts |
| Source | accidents, environment, nature | targeted attackers |
| Adversary behaviour | the environment does not adapt to defeat you | the attacker actively adapts to your defences |
| Field | natural sciences, defined experiments | social sciences, ever-changing |
| Example standard | ISO 61508 (functional safety) | ISO 27001 (information security) |
The key insight: gravity doesn't change its strategy when you build a bridge — but a hacker will change theirs the moment you deploy a defence. That adaptiveness is what makes security uniquely hard.
Tip: German collapses both into "Sicherheit", which is why English terms are often borrowed to disambiguate.