Better Rude Than Vulnerable

Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson, Editor

           

I came across a guy with a hand truck outside my office entrance today, waiting to deliver a package, frantically calling to get someone to answer the door. I found myself politely using my prox card to let him in, and only after doing so started wondering how I knew — really knew — that his intentions were honorable.

It hit me like a ton of bricks to realize that I really didn't know whether he was, for example, the disgruntled ex-husband of one of our employees (using the hand truck as a pretense to get in the door so that he could do something violent). For that matter, he could have been a disciple of Osama bin Laden, and the innocent-looking delivery box could have contained a chemical weapon … or an explosive … or … or

After I calmed my nerves, and after the delivery was completed without incident, I started thinking about the various ways that being a polite person can get in the way of good security.

It happens every time we “hold the door” for someone who lost their ID card. It happens when we are overly helpful on the phone to someone asking questions, thus running the risk of giving out information to a “social engineer” planning some kind of mischief.

If you multiply such seemingly harmless incidents by the number of people in a big company, you see what a leaky “sieve” our “bucket” of security actually is.

And these risks have almost nothing to do with technology or whether an electronic security system is operating correctly. It's all about the “human factor,” and, unfortunately, today's security risks suggest there are times when it's better to be rude than vulnerable.

We welcome your feedback: E-mail landerson@securitysolutions.com

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