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The Dirty Little Secret About Security
Feb. 11th, 2008 01:42 pmThe dirty little secret about security is how easily it's defeated. Via Jerry Pournelle's site, I found a lengthy but interesting article about how easily security can be bypassed.
The article is the story of Ameenah Franks, at the time a teen-aged mother, who specialized in office burglaries. She got into a number of sites, including "secure" government buildings like Washington, DC-area FBI offices, and stole cash and small valuables. It wasn't until she'd been caught the third time that she got jail time, and the author suggests Ameenah will be back at it as soon as she gets out.
How'd she do it? Simple - she relied on people's willingness to help, "be nice" and non-confrontational. She got past guards with a song-and-dance about being a new intern, or found out where the smokers hung out and got them to let her in via the back door. Then she'd walk around with some mail lifted off of a desk, pretending to "need a signature." If challenged, she had a quick story, which, even if it frequently didn't make much sense, usually worked. It goes to show that you don't need "Mission Impossible" skills to break into a lot of places. A smile, a clipboard and a little chutzpah will work wonders.
So just how safe do you feel?
The article is the story of Ameenah Franks, at the time a teen-aged mother, who specialized in office burglaries. She got into a number of sites, including "secure" government buildings like Washington, DC-area FBI offices, and stole cash and small valuables. It wasn't until she'd been caught the third time that she got jail time, and the author suggests Ameenah will be back at it as soon as she gets out.
How'd she do it? Simple - she relied on people's willingness to help, "be nice" and non-confrontational. She got past guards with a song-and-dance about being a new intern, or found out where the smokers hung out and got them to let her in via the back door. Then she'd walk around with some mail lifted off of a desk, pretending to "need a signature." If challenged, she had a quick story, which, even if it frequently didn't make much sense, usually worked. It goes to show that you don't need "Mission Impossible" skills to break into a lot of places. A smile, a clipboard and a little chutzpah will work wonders.
So just how safe do you feel?
