I am still confused. Perhaps it is because I have never attempted to modify a
file with vi. I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed that the issue was that the "bad guy" (yes, I intentionally quoted it because I realize what we are talking about) could see that it was a Storable file and then manipulate it (using perl). If that's the case, then compressing it gives no advantage because they could just uncompress it (using perl).