Recording everything

The piece below from the Brookings Institute is pretty disturbing -- what happens when governments have access to everything? (h.t.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Full Body Scans – is that really the best we can come up with?

This is a bit out of my regular macro focus, but I just couldn’t help myself…

I like to be safe when I fly and I think safety from terrorism should be a topic we address as a society. I’ll even concede that government and policy makers can play a role in achieving the goal of “safety”. Our focus on “things” rather than people, however, is alarming. Do naked full body scans make us safer? Maybe they will for an infinitesimally small period of time, that is, until terrorists figure out a different place to attack or a way around it. In the meantime, everyone at the airport will be presumed guilty until physically violated and prodded. Seems a bit out of touch with reality.

When I worked at a large bank, the lobby of our building had an X-ray machine installed after 9/11. Sounds like it would make us safer (although how it would make any building safer from a plane crashing into its side or even a truck crashing into the lobby, I never understood). But let’s give the management company the benefit of the doubt and assume it made us safer. One night, working late, a colleague and I ordered a pizza and I went downstairs to pick it up (electronic card keys and all). Funny thing happened, the pizza box didn’t fit in the X-ray machine, so it was never checked. I called building maintenance to tell them of the faulty systems. I pointed to the fact that they were very vigilant to check me every morning, scan my briefcase, and register with electronic card keys on the way in AND out, etc. and yet they did nothing to check the pizza delivery man. I told them it would just be better to have no scans, and invest the money in nice outdoor seating areas. The security personnel did not appreciate my insight.

As a society we are actually becoming significantly more comfortable in the presumption of guilt (the idea behind the scans is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent), becoming more comfortable in adding cost without calculating benefit, and becoming accustomed to giving technology and low-skilled workers increased powers in order to standardize a process, rather than training experts and giving them more wide-ranging responsibilities, including judging threats, profiling (based on suspicious activity), etc. Unfortunately, standardized infringements of privacy just increase costs, mis-allocate resources, and actually increase our exposure by providing more inevitable holes in security.

It is a shame, and it’s sad.

Google

I follow developments in the tech industry quite closely but rarely discuss specific stories – this one is different.

…Google announced Google Apps for Government, a new version of Google’s suite of cloud-based enterprise applications that have been hardened to meet the government’s more stringent security restrictions.Dave Girouard, Google’s President of Enterprise, kicked off the presentation with a few stats: every year, the federal government spends $76 billion on IT expenses. Another $50 billion is spent on IT by state and local governments. Google is looking to help.

Google says that this is the first multi-tenant cloud application suite that has received FISMA certification at a FISMA-Moderate level, which gives it the ability to store and serve sensitive (but not classified) information. Google’s Matthew Glotzbach says this encompasses 80-90% of all government information.

For the link, click here.

First, the fact that the government is ever growing, to the point that Google finds it necessary (and profitable) to develop government-specific IT programs is pretty astonishing (concerning, amazing, cool, scary, etc.). Second, the fact that even the government recognizes the challenges of closed systems is encouraging (again, it’s also quite scary). Lastly, the fact that Google is developing something to such standards is encouraging for the rest of the world as it will ultimately trickle down into our apps. (No position in GOOG – I just think it’s pretty impressive.)

Security fear drive gun sales

When people are scared, they’ll spend a lot on security. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article6917828.ece In full disclosure, we have a position in RGR (not a recommendation in any way.)