The Living Link: How “People Problems” Impact Security
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The following stories are based on real security failures witnessed by Garrett personnel, but customers have been anonymized to protect confidentiality.
With seven years of experience in the security industry, I am by no means the most veteran analyst of security issues, but when you work at a company with as much history and reach as Garrett Metal Detectors, you hear some crazy stories. Some make us chuckle, some make us groan, but all of them contain teachable moments. One common theme among these stories is the human element – ranging from the crowd pacers to the C-Suite executives. The care and attentiveness of the people involved makes all the difference in how the security ecosystem performs. Machines can do a lot, but they don’t care about security – only people can do that. If you want results, you need to be willing to assess your own performance. By assessing the pitfalls of others, we can learn how to care more about our own security and get more out of any investment we make into keeping our people, systems, and capital safe.
Lesson 1: Taking Ownership
This is a story I heard early in my time at Garrett – within the first six months – and it’s easy to see why. We sold hand-held metal detectors to a bank in the Caribbean but kept receiving complaints about faulty equipment. We provided replacements, but these too began to experience mysterious mechanical faults. Garrett prides itself on high levels of product reliability, so we asked the bank to investigate. After reviewing their security footage, they discovered the reason for the broken units. Their night watchmen, likely bored and unsupervised for long stretches of time, had noticed the vaguely sword-like shape of our SuperWand, and had taken up metal detector sword fighting to pass the time. While the SuperWand is a reliable and easy to use product that is well-suited for bank security, it is not built for battle. To avoid further destruction of guard equipment, we shipped them the more rugged Super Scanner V, which we advised would be more resistant to future duels.
For the bank’s part, the human error that needed correction was ownership – their guards were not treating their equipment with the appropriate level of care. Though humorous in retrospect, it is important for security teams to be instilled with a sense of the seriousness of their mission and the consequent understanding that their equipment is a tool, not a toy. Boredom is understandable, but professionalism in the use of equipment will keep it functioning at peak condition longer and in more adverse circumstances. Your employees probably know better than to use a bookcase as a ladder or a flashlight as a drumstick, and they should treat their tools with same respect, recognizing that their job performance and the safety of the facility they protect depends on it.
Lesson 2: Training for Reality