KILL the PRESIDENT!
What's the World's Most Stupid Security Measure?
By John Leyden
Posted: 11/02/2003 at 11:35 GMT
Human rights watchdog Privacy International has launched a quest to find
the World's Most Stupid Security Measure.
The global competition will identify what the group describes as the most
"pointless, intrusive, annoying and self-serving" security
measures.
The "Stupid Security" award aims to highlight the absurdities
of the security industry. Privacy International's director, Simon Davies,
said his group has taken the initiative because of
"innumerable" security initiatives around the world that had
absolutely no genuine security benefit.
"The situation has become ridiculous," said Mr Davies.
"Security has become the smokescreen for incompetent and robotic
managers the world over".
"I have stood for ages in a security line at an inconsequential
office building and grilled relentlessly only to be given a security pass
that a high school student could have faked. And I resent being forced to
take off my shoes at an airport that can't even screen its luggage",
he said.
Even before 9/11 a whole army of bumbling amateurs has taken it upon
themselves to figure out pointless, annoying, intrusive, illusory and
just plain stupid measures to "protect" our security.
Privacy International reckons jobsworths have become a global menace.
"From the nightclub in Berlin that demands the home address of its
patrons, to the phone company in Britain that won't let anyone pay more
than twenty pounds a month from a bank account, the world has become
infested with bumptious administrators competing to hinder or harass
us," it reports.
There are real concerns about security, of course. Privacy International
argues that unworkable security laws and illusory security measures do
nothing to help issues of real public concern. They only hinder the
public and intrude unnecessary into our private lives, the organisation
believes.
Privacy International, the outfit behind the Big Brother awards, is
calling for nominations on the candidates for the silliest security
measures. Nomination should be sent to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]by March
15.
Nominations should be as specific as possible, mentioning the name of the
guilty parties, and wherever possible, including evidence and references.
Any government or private sector initiative or action can be nominated.
Legislation and technology can also be nominated.
The judges welcome nominations in the form of narratives and anecdotes.
The competition is to be judged by a panel of well-known security
experts, public policy specialists, privacy advocates and journalists.
"Winners" will be announced at the thirteenth Computers,
Freedom & Privacy conference in New York on April 3. �
External Links
The stupid security award page
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29279.html
