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What Examples of Security Theater Have You Encountered?
swillden writes "Everyone who pays any attention at all to security, both computer security and 'meatspace' security, has heard the phrase Security Theater. For years I've paid close attention to security setups that I come in contact with, and tried to evaluate their real effectiveness vs their theatrical aspects. In the process I've found many examples of pure theater, but even more cases where the security was really a cover for another motive." swillden would like to know what you've encountered along these lines; read on for the rest of his question below.
swillden continues: "Recently, a neighbor uncovered a good example. He and his wife attended a local semi-pro baseball game where security guards were checking all bags for weapons. Since his wife carries a small pistol in her purse, they were concerned that there would be a problem. They decided to try anyway, and see if her concealed weapon permit satisfied the policy. The guard looked at her gun, said nothing and passed them in, then stopped the man behind them because he had beer and snacks in his bag. Park rules prohibit outside food. It's clear what the 'security' check was really about: improving park food vending revenues.
So, what examples of pure security theater have you noticed? Even more interesting, what examples of security-as-excuse have you seen?"
So, what examples of pure security theater have you noticed? Even more interesting, what examples of security-as-excuse have you seen?"
Airports... Need I say more?
More Twoson than Cupertino
No trolling intended, but the war in Iraq now is the biggest piece of security theater on the planet. It does not make the US safer ( indeed it probably does the reverse ) but it does give certain people benefits. Chaney and friends make millions on no-bid contracts, and neocons get to implement policies that in more normal conditions would not be tolerated by the public.
While creating an intranet for the company I was doing some outside work for I ran into a problem authenticating through their antiquated AD system. Rather than updating everything or heaven forbid give management an actual password to remember my instructions were to "make it as scary as possible but don't actually put a password on it." I had a four tiered authentication system which would allow you to move forward regardless of what was put in the text boxes. They loved it, and a little piece of me died when I cashed the check.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
In 2001 I was living in an apartment complex in a North Dallas suburb. If you got a package that wouldn't fit in those teeny-tiny mailboxes then the mail man would drop off the package at the apartment complex office and you could pick it up in normal office hours.
After September 11th, the apartment management sent out a memo to all residents that because of the heightened state of terrorism awareness the office would no longer allow packages to be held there for the residents.
Of course my first thought was they were just tired of dealing with the packages and saw this as a convenient excuse to stop holding packages for people.
No todo lo que es oro brilla
My adviser back at University, Rich Maddox, used to tell a story from his youth, when he was dating a girl who (apparently for religious reasons? I don't remember exactly) always carried a large knife in her purse. So anyway, they were going to Disneyland with a couple of friends, and as they went through the entry turnstile they stopped Rich and asked to check his backpack for weapons and so forth. And they found a pocket knife there, and told him he couldn't bring it into the park because it was dangerous. That's when Rich called over to his girlfriend who was already inside, and said "Honey, do you still have that knife with you?" And she pulled it out of her purse and said "Yeah, why do you ask?"
(rot13) rpbzbab@tznvy.pbz
I had a boss that named the wireless network "Virus". On asking him about this, he explained "it's to scare off hackers - they won't connect if they think they'll get a virus". Ah, ok.
It's probably worth pointing out he wasn't aware you could "secure" a wireless point with a basic WPA key at least - it was completely open, anyone could walk right in, assuming they beat the fear of the "virus" that was.
throw new NoSignatureException();
...while I was temping for a company in Chicago, I was asked to deliver a box of candy to a client in the Sears Tower. While entering, I went though the giant, heightened security setup - x-rays and all - and got held up because I had a box cutter in my backback.
They held it up triumphantly and shouted at me, "Just what do you expect to do with this?!"
I wanted to ask them them the same question back. Just what did they expect I'd do with that? In a building that had security guards with guns? Was I going to hijack the building and crash it into a plane?
On my bank's web site, when I used the browser's back button, things started to get out of sync. You had to click their own custom back button somewhere in the pages so that everything would continues to work.
When I called to report it, I was explained that I had to click their own back button, not mine. When I said "Yes, I know, I just wanted to let you know so that you can fix the bug sometime", the final answer was something like "It's by design. It's for security reasons". At that point I was expected to say "ok. thank you" or whatever, and to understand that a "bug" was totally unthinkable on their super-reliable ultra-secure blah blah bank site.
Nevertheless, a few months later, the bug was gone. I didn't call back to say I'm now worried about the security...
The article fails to talk about security as a deterrent.
The RFID bracelets on an infant can give comfort to the parents but its more of a deterrent then anything. Sure the hospital can tell the parents that their child is protected. But the hospital is not protecting the child as much as its protecting itself. For example:
A guard that is in the bank is not there to stop a bank from being robbed. He deters people from committing the crime itself. In a robbery situation the guard himself is useless because the individual or individuals robbing a bank would take him out first. But in most bank robberies, the criminals are going to go after a bank without a guard anyway.
A mall guard doesn't stop people from stealing, he creates the presence of being watched, therefor deterring people from stealing.
Same goes with cameras in stores. Most of the time no one is monitoring the cameras and if anything their used to watch employees over customers. But their deterring employees from doing anything unethical or illegal and they deter people from stealing.
In my opinion the idea of security theater and feeling safe is crap. You might as well spend the time and effort to know your safe then make it seem like you feel like your safe.
What's left to say? It's pretty clear that drugs are more dangerous when they're only available in the unregulated black market than in a regulated legal market. Criminalizing the use of drugs only hurts drug users more, yet it's done in the name of safety.
What's worst is that we've been fighting this war for decades, no end is in sight, we've spent more money and lost more freedoms fighting it than we have in Iraq. And still, no one in power has the balls to speak out against this.
We live in a sick, sad world. People who would meet the non-violent act of drug use with the violent acts of arrest and imprisonment are themselves violent criminals. Yet in this society they are deemed good citizens.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
rj
OK, solution. Ask for TWO cans of soda. Drink the first one and then tear the second one in half. Try to pour as much of the flowing liquid into the now empty first can.......no wait.. Ask for THREE cans......crap....
Patriot Act
I had some stock options through my job that I tried to cash through the etrade account that had been set up for me. The stock price was rather high, and our trading window was about to close, so I tried selling at literally the last minute. The sell order failed, and no reason was given. A few days later, I received a letter in the mail from etrade telling me that my account was locked. Several years before, while living in a different state, I had an etrade account. Because the SSN was the same on both accounts, but the addresses were totally different, some part of the Patriot Act made them lock my account until I could prove my identity by sending them a notarized copy of my social security card.
Another example, which isn't really security theater, just shitty work by the TSA happened to me a few years before that.
My wife had to fly out of state for a funeral, and she took our 6 month old daughter with her. I took them to the ticket counter. Since she was traveling with a baby, a car seat, and her carry on bag, the ticket agent offered to print me a pass that would allow me to accompany her to the gate and help her carry her things.
As I was getting up to the xray machines, I remembered that I had a small pocket knife in my pocket. I hadn't removed it since I wasn't expecting to go through security. As I got to the xray machine, I told the operator what had happened, and told her that I'd just go back through the line and put the knife out in our car.
She seemed ok with that, and told me that I could just go ahead and go through the xray machine, and out the exit that was just a few feet from the xray machine, so I didn't have to go back and work my way through the line.
As soon as I went through, several TSA agents came up and detained me for attempting to bring a weapon through the security checkpoint. I wound up being searched, my 6 month old daughter that I was holding was searched, and I was questioned for about an hour as to why I had tried to take a knife through security. Not once did they go talk to the lady running the xray machine less than 50 feet away, who had told me to go through.
In the end, my knife was confiscated (It was about a $50 knife), and I was threatened that I could be under arrest for attempting to smuggle a weapon through the airport, and I could be facing a several thousand dollar fine for it. They filled out a report, and made me immediately leave the terminal.
About a month later, I received a letter from the TSA saying that they had chosen not to fine me this time, but if I ever came up in their system again I would face the maximum penalties.
That was the day that I lost all faith in our government.
I was trying to transfer some funds out of a joint bank account. I used the phone based system (and answered the usual security questions). Then the person told me that for the transfer to be allowed, both people on the joint account needed to sign-off on the transfer.
The other person wasn't available... so I just said "Ok, hold on I'll get him." Then waited a few seconds and said "Hi. Yes, I'm he. Yes I confirm the transfer."
They transferred the money. No authentication, no double-checks. Just some voice on a phone (I didn't even bother faking a different-sounding voice) saying that it was ok.
I have a friend who works for *organization*. They work in a
single-story building, in a suburb of a second-tier city. The building
sits on its own plot of land, on a hill, in an industrial-office-park
kind of area. The building is a lab, but it's mostly monitoring
equipment. It's not weapons, or explosives, or significant quantities
of chemicals.
This is probably not what anyone would consider a high-value target.
There's never been any kind of attack or threat against the building
or its personnel. But after 9-11, management started obsessing about
security.
The first thing they did was get armed guards for the building. Armed
guards did not make my friend feel secure. My friend wondered about
their training and worried about getting shot.
Guard duty is tough. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter,
and the guards aren't in good condition to begin with, since they just
stand there all day and never get any exercise. In practice, the
guards spend most of their time sitting in their cars in front of the
building, with the engine running for heat or AC.
Management decided that this didn't look good, so they built a guard
shack along the right-hand side of the driveway. Now the guard sits in
the shack and watches the cars go by.
But that didn't seem very secure either--a bad guy could just drive
right by without stopping
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing).
So they added a gate, and spikes, and a card reader. To pass, an
employee stops at the gate, rolls down their window and swipes their
card. The gate goes up, the spikes retract, and they drive through.
My friend doesn't trust this system a bit, and makes a point of
watching to see that the spikes have retracted before driving over
them. There was speculation among the staff as to who would be the
first to blow out their tires on the spikes. As it happenes, it was
the mailman, followed some time later by two visitors who either
didn't see or didn't understand the signs warning against following
another vehicle through the gate.
I suggested that they stencil silhouettes of all the vehicles they've
caught on the guard shack, the way fighter pilots (used to?) record
kills on the nose of their airplanes.
My friend points out that even with a gate and spikes, the system only
protects against attackers who
- care about their tires, and
- don't have trucks
because any vehicle can blow through the gate and make it the short
distance to the building on four flat tires, and any truck can drive
over the curb and avoid the whole thing.
Management decided that blowing out their visitors' tires was
unfriendly, so they instituted a new procedure for passing the gate.
Now, drivers stop at the gate and roll down their window. The guard
walks from the shack (on the right), in front of the car, to the card
reader (on the left), takes the driver's card, swipes it, and returns
it to the driver. Then the driver can pass.
The staff considered that the guards were now at risk of being run
over--and it happened. An employee reached down in his car to get his
card, his foot came off the brake, and the car rolled forward into the
guard. The guard was taken to hospital--I don't think the injuries
were too serious. The driver has to appear in court and pay fines--I
don't know if it is criminal or civil.
This is beyond security theater. This is real damage.
It also helps politicians pander to ignorant members of the right.
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Every year, my lady and I go up to Canada for the 4th of July weekend to escape the annual (and mostly illegal, under local city codes) fireworks war-zone that infests our neighborhood. We've been doing this for several years, and in fact we both just got our NEXUS cards.
To help put this in context: I'm a ham radio operator, as well as a volunteer first-responder. I've had formal training, through our city's fire department, in disaster relief, emergency medical procedures, basic search-and-rescue, the whole bit.
Because of the above, our minivan is well-equipped for emergencies. I've installed multiple communication radios, a navigation computer, and I carry a medical trauma kit and various safety gear such as flares and a reflective vest. Besides the small antenna farm on the roof, I also have a light bar mounted on the back end (amber, red, clear... same as many tow trucks).
Every bit of it is legal under the road laws of every state except New York (I know, because I spent a couple of long nights going through said laws to make bloody sure!). Couple all that with the fact that I work for our state's police agency (non-commissioned, civil service).
Now, with all the above in mind -- Last year, we're coming back through on Sunday afternoon. I normally have the radios and navigation system on while driving, and this has never, in times past, been an issue.
Not this year. The border guard we drew seemed to be short on both sleep and temper, and rudely ordered me to turn EVERYthing off before he would even talk to us. One of the questions he asked, after that point, was who I worked for. When I told him, he said (snappily) that, for that reason alone, I should understand why he'd told me to turn everything off.
He let us move on at that point, but before I took off I told him, flat out, "No, I don't understand."
And it was the honest truth! If someone's going to try and set off something that goes bang via radio, or other wireless means, it strikes me that they're going to go to considerable effort to keep such activities hidden. They certainly would not do so in a hugely-long border-crossing line, where there was absolutely no way to move anywhere but through the guard posts, in a minivan that stands out like a solar flare and has ham radio callsign plates to boot!
I have no clear idea why this guard was so nasty, or what bizarre purpose his attitude served. I will say that it did indeed strike me as pure theater.
The only thing I can think of is that, perhaps, his sergeant or lieutenant was observing him at the time, and we didn't notice...?
Keep the peace(es).
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
The office had a second door with a peep hole into the laundry. To give the camera an air of legitimacy, she sat in the office one night and made a note of everyone who came into the laundry. When they came in to pay their rent the next week, she mentioned that she saw them doing their laundry on the "tape" and asked about a fictitious mess that was left.
She managed to do this to a couple of the complex gossips, and never had a problem in there again.
I was an intelligence analyst in the NJ Army National Guard until my contract ended in 2006.
We were deployed twice to protect Port Authority facilities around NY and NJ. On both deployment we had our weapons M16A2s or pistols. On our second deployment we were not given ammunition. Yes, we were walking around in uniforms holding empty rifles.
The best we could do is radio the Port Authority Police or possible club someone trying to steal our weapons. Our combat effectiveness was slightly above that of Nerf.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
Not having flown a commercial airliner recently, I'd completely forgotten about the liquid/aerosol rule and decided to carry my luggage onboard. After standing in line for awhile, I noticed the signs and remembered. Crap! I had my mouthwash, an aerosol can of deodorant, and my aerosol shaving cream with me. Given the length the line had grown to, I decided to just forgo those items than risk being late.
A bit about those three items. Both the shaving cream and deodorant were in aerosol cans, both larger than the size allowed, but obviously retail items. The mouthwash was too large as well, and was a generic amber bottle, about 14 or so ounces, with a prescription sticker (I have gingivitis).
I pull all three items out, and just tell the TSA guy that I know I need to toss them. He glances at all three and tells me I have to ditch the deodorant and the shaving cream, but I can keep the mouthwash.
Because it's prescription.
So, the two retail aerosol cans that are nearly impossible to inject anything into are verboten, but the amber bottle with the mystery liquid in it, that's okay, because it has a sticker with a Walgreens logo on it. Fan-fucking-tastic.
For the longest time, I was on the "do not fly" list. I never knew why, but my name is very common. Turns out somebody used an alias the same as my name in the Bahamas to commit international wire fraud - I found this out when it took 6 hours to open a $100 bank account. It wasn't identity theft - just coincidence.
So here I am, not only taking my shoes off, but also being escorted to the back room for the "enhanced" security check every time I fly on an airliner. The only problem is that I'm an FAA-licensed pilot, and have all the clearance to enter just about any area of the airport! (once I get past the extended searchdown, that is)
What a joke...
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Two things: Firstly wooden assailants are very dangerous and resistant to gunshot wounds. Your best bet against this sort of wood-be assailant is a flamethrower or an ax.
Secondly, saying that you shouldn't have a gun because you are more likely to commit suicide than be killed by an intruder implies that either people randomly commit suicide for no reason or that people choose to have home invasions. They are not really the same sort of thing so the statistics aren't really a helpful metric.
That said, if you are a person with suicidal tendencies you should keep neither firearms nor flamethrowers (which confusingly are not generally considered firearms) around the house. Axes however are very difficult to commit suicide with, and as such should be kept in the event you run into any would-be wood-be assailants.
some will work if you blow on the glass.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I insist on the the most effective automotive anti-theft device ever invented or marketed: the stick shift.
Who needs a flashing red light when there is a third pedal and gear shift that scare the crap out of 90% of potential drivers of my car?
One thing you don't realize when you see it on television is just how big the garden is, and how far away the fence is.
But that's by the by. As I was walking around the boundary fence, I noticed a security guard, armed with what appeared to be a shotgun, hiding behind a bush. What was even stranger, he was attempting to, but failing, to hide from me, armed with what was obviously a digital camera and nothing else.
I continued walking around a bit, looking at him. He continued to edge around the particular shrub; again, trying, and failing, to keep out of my view.
It was so patently absurd that I felt like taking a photo of the scene, but given that the guy was carrying a shotgun and this was the White House, I thought it might be prudent to ask first.
So, I called out to the guy "excuse me, but do you mind if I take a photo"?
The reply comes back "no, don't take one". And he tries even harder, and fails, to hide himself.
This is despite the fact that anybody with a pair of binoculars, or a long lens camera, would have easily spotted the bloke from several hundred yards away. The Secret Service must, of course, know this, and probably had two other armed guards I hadn't spotted watching me.
For the life of me, I still don't understand what this guy was trying to achieve hiding behind the shrubbery. Look, everybody expects there to be guards in the White House gardens, some of whom you'll see, some of whom you won't unless you try something insanely stupid. But this whole hide-and-seek routine made absolutely no sense at all.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I have a Ford Focus. My anti-theft device? I have a Ford Focus.