Stupid security

The Register is reporting the 2006 Stupid Security awards.

The “Stupid Security” awards aim to highlight the absurdities of so-called security procedures that make little contribution to real security improvements. The international compo aims to unearth the world’s most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.
Privacy International’s director, Simon Davies, said the organisation had taken the initiative because of “innumerable” security initiatives around the world that had “absolutely no genuine security benefit”. This will be the second competition in the series, following inaugural awards in 2003 which attracted 5,000 entries…
Gongs will be awarded in five categories: the Most Egregiously Stupid Award, Most Inexplicably Stupid Award, Most Annoyingly Stupid Award, Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award and Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award. Privacy International cites a few choice examples of the sort of pointless measures it is seeking to hold up to ridicule; including an airport that this month emptied out a full plane because a passenger was drinking from a lemonade bottle, to the British schools that fingerprint their children to “stop” the theft of library books, to the airline company that refused to allow passengers to bring books or magazines onto the plane.
There are real concerns about security, of course. Privacy International argues that unworkable security practices and illusory security measures do nothing to address issues of real public concern. They only hinder the public, intrude unnecessarily into our private lives and often reduce us to the status of cattle.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 11:59am on 22 August 2006
Category: Politics, General

(1) when I worked (I use the term loosely) in the civil service (mid – late 90s) I’d often accidently show my train pass to the Security Guards at the door instead of my office pass, and they never seemed to notice.

(2) Here’s something ridiculous. The other evening at the Royal Albert Hall, all bags were checked on the way in (well, not all, but mine was). A torch was shone into it. It contained my purse, two nappies, half a dozen receipts, some lipstick, and about a dozen bits of paper including old pew sheets from church and flyers for things that I’d like, one day, to do. What was the point of this queue building exercise? I mean he only surveyed about 20% of the contents of my bag anyway – it has several pockets that he didn’t enter into (in fact I’ve not entered into some of them either, not for months). All it achieved was to successfully marr my enjoyment of the concert (until I got into the swing of it) by making me think that there was reason to believe that someone was going to bomb the joint.

ruthdavanzo () (URL)
9:33pm on 22 August 2006