Category Archives: Physical Security
Our Nation’s Borders
The security of our nation’s borders is a topic of great importance. The importance of border security, like most forms of security, can only be truly appreciated when it fails. Some forms of border security failure can have devastating consequences … Continue reading
Security Review: Automated Teller Machine
Summary: Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have been around since the late 1930s. Nowadays they can be found all over the place. The common and accepted use of these machines is to draw money from your bank account in a convenient … Continue reading
Security Review: Traffic Lights
As i’m sure everyone already aware of, one way our country (and many others) directs traffic is with these things call traffic lights. We place them at intersections, at about a one to one ratio of oncoming lanes to traffic … Continue reading
Electronic Voting in India
Given the upcoming elections, it seems like an appropriate time to cover an electronic voting system that is not our own, a system that has a significantly different view on security, usability and design.
Security Review: Bodyguards
Security Review: Bodyguard Overview: Bodyguards are people who protect their clients from various treats such as assaults, assassination, and kidnapping. Depending on the importance of the client who is being protected, some clients might have a team of bodyguards while … Continue reading
Security Review: Metal Detectors and Security Checkpoints
Anybody who has flown on a national airline or had business in a federal, state, or county government building has certainly had the experience of waiting in the queue to be ushered through a beeping metal-detecting portal, separated from bags … Continue reading
Maryland abandons e-voting machines for paper ballots
The state of Maryland has decided, after spending $65 million on electronic voting machines made by Premier (formerly known as Diebold) Election Systems, to spend another $20 million on optical-scan machines that read paper ballots. The reason for this incredible … Continue reading
Want to Steal A Baby?
Overview: Overlake Hospital Birthing Center has put a security system and policies in place to make sure babies are safe there. First of all, mothers are given a bracelet when they come in that identifies who they are. This is … Continue reading
Polish teen uses TV remote to derail trains
Covered on The Register, Telegraph.co.uk, and Slashdot. Earlier this month, a 14-year-old in Poland used a modified TV remote control to directly interfere with rail junction controls in the city of Lodz. He obtained information on the operation of the … Continue reading
Home Security Systems
Summary: The physical system I am reviewing is the prototypical home security system. These systems are used to provide an increased sense of security (compared to only door and window locks), and provide a guarantee against more professional break-in attempts. … Continue reading