Re: Role of Campus Police.

[Willis Marti <wmarti () TAMU EDU>]

> > > I really am of the opinion that if we can get to the point
> > > where everyone knows his or her role in the protection of information,
> > > we won't have much need for security specialists.
>
> I agree with this point.  It's pretty rare that anyone has to engage a
> security consultant to lock your house at night.  Effective (read:
> sufficient for typical deterrence levels) security should become as
> intuitive and easy as possible for the average user.

Apt analogy, but I disagree with the conclusion. Locking one's house may
deter the casual thief, but does almost nothing against an intruder with
even a minimal skill set. Educating users is nice but will not be sufficient.

If one wants to minimize the need for security specialists, one has to
eliminate (minimize) the intruders and/or harden the system. The most
intuitive action for a user is "do nothing". Most people will always have
something to grab their attention with higher priority (for them) than
security.

Cheers,
 Willis Marti
 Associate Director for Networking
 Computing & Information Services
 Texas A&M University

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