One is not born with a suspicious mind, we earn a suspicious mind through observation, experience and reaction. Animals avoid a poison water hole because of the bones on it's banks. Those that ignore the signs add to the bones. Those of us that are "professionally" paranoid or suspicious come by it the hard way. This is not always a bad thing, in fact if cultivated and nurtured it can be a valuable asset. Of course one must expose oneself the the right kinds of stimuli, experiences and situations and see them through to fruition in order to learn what lessons they have to teach.
The security professional must recognized them for what they are in order to learn to differentiate, categorize and collate these at times subtle indicators. Things are often not as they seem.
Can we trust our fellow man? To some degree the answer is almost always no. A person is capable of many things, not all in line with laws or rules. Desperate people can do desperate things at times. The expectation of what any given person is capable of is a difficult skill to master. Many times we know people for years and are still surprised at what they are capable of. Criminals are people, and people are as different as the stars in the sky. Today a successful business man with a beautiful home, wife and two kids in collage. Trips to Hawaii with his and hers Lexus in the drive. Tomorrow in hand cuffs standing before the judge working out a plea deal for a crime his neighbors never would have suspected him capable of. It happens every day and all around the world. Can such behavior be predicted? Of course not. If it were people like you and I would be out of a job over night. But it's our job to try.
So it's back to the drawing board to learn at the most basic level how to do the job we as security professionals are tasked to do. We provide many things in the name of security, systems both real and theoretical. Formulas based half on first hand experience and half on hypothesis. Like a doctor, we examine a problem and based on our experience or the experience of others make suggestions or changes if we are empowered to do so. We let the program run for a bit and watch to see if the boat floats or if it springs leaks. If it floats we pat each other on the back and collect our pay for a job well done. We sleep the sleep of children with happy smiles on our faces. If on the other hand it leaks, we fill the hole we missed with our first appraisal of the the situation and we watch again. Sleep evades us as we ponder the possibilities and consider alternatives. If we care, we worry a bit.
The security professional can be mildly paranoid, allowed to sweat the details, a worry wort, that's us. Those of us that have worked with varied experiences and situations can readily predict and propose how to react to an incident after the fact. This however is not the job we are tasked with. We are not merely "reactive" to an incident like a policeman, fireman, ambulance crew or attorney. We are expected to be "Pro active" to avoid an incident that might cost our patron/client loss of assets such a Property, Reputation, loss through litigation or even loss of life. We learn quickly from our mistake and if we are lucky, by the mistakes of others. Observe, react and report is our mantra. We exploit our own soft spots and weaknesses and come up with solutions until we reach a point where we can find no soft spot to exploit. We must never wait for others to take advantage of the wrinkles in our security programs. Ignorance is indeed bliss but once we are enlightened we must act to address the wrinkle or suffer the consequences.
If you are suitably interested and of an open mind, I will endeavor to peal back the facade on the subject of security and try to give you a view of the security mind set that is the foundation for security programs no matter what the task be.
RJ Mosca
