Monday, July 28, 2008

Let's talk about Security (1)

There are 5 Golden Rules......


1) Nothing is ever 100% secure.

2) Security is 90% PR: it's more about making the public feel safe (and the troublemakers feel threatened) than about the actuality of the situation.

3) The success of a security regime is ultimately judged more on its crisis response (and its subsequent PR handling of events) than on the effectiveness of its precautions.

4) Security is always a trade-off between minimizing risk and minimizing inconvenience.

5) Nothing is ever 100% secure.


I suppose number 2 is the most controversial (but it's not intended to devalue the importance of the other 10%, the more concrete security measures). I'd suggest number 4 is the most important. Number 3 is the one that I really worry about here in Beijing.

2 comments:

moonrat said...

very nicely put.

would you kindly direct the various international airlines to #4? they seem to have it quite backwards.

Froog said...

Ah, airline security checks are as nothing compared to what we'll have to endure at the Olympics here.

Watch out for my forthcoming post on The Anus Bomb.