Security Theater

Vanity Fair has a great article on "security theater" with insights by two of my favorite security and risk commentators (Bruce Schneier and Paul Slovic). Read the piece and reflect on how it applies to humanitarian security. While it's easy to take potshots at TSA and government airport security practices, it's a lot more difficult to take a critical look at your organization's and your own decisions following a crisis event.

Some questions I always ask myself following such an event include: Are my decisions based more on emotional aftermath versus the reality of the situation? Have I thought about the actual cost of my decisions? Am I perhaps guilty of engaging in security theater? And if so, is that always bad?

Mindfulness paves the path for better coping with future crisis...

TSA Friendly Modular Pocket Knife

At a loss for ideas on what to get your favorite globetrotting NGO security professional for the holidays? How about a Switch modular pocket knife. The Switch features a slick design that allows you to add or subtract tools based on your needs. Going somewhere on a plane? Take off the knife blades to stay in the good graces of TSA. A simple turn of a coin allows you to reconfigure the pocket tool to your own specifications with any of included 18 attachments. At $79 they're not Swiss Army Knife inexpensive, but they are oh so high-tech and cool looking. (If Santa is on a budget this year, Switches are currently on sale at Think Geek for $20 off.)

TSA Administrator Interview

Noted security guru Bruce Schneier is doing a five-part interview series with Kip Hawley, Administrator of the U.S Transportation Security Administration (TSA, the folks responsible for making you taking off your shoes at the airport, banning liquids, and all sorts of other acts of "security theater.") Bruce asks some hard questions and Hawley mostly ducks them with the standard "if you only knew what I knew" response. This is a great example of how security works at the government level and what you should avoid doing when practicing security for the humanitarian sector.

(P.S. - As of August 1, 2007, The NGO Security Blog is active once again, with limited postings as time permits.)