PHYSICAL SECURITY MAXIMS

Here are some of the Physical Security Maxims of Security Guru Roger G. Johnston, Ph.D., CPP of the Vulnerability Assessment Team, Argonne National Laboratory.


Infinity Maxim: There are an unlimited number of security vulnerabilities for a given security device, system, or program, most of which will never be discovered (by the good guys or bad guys).

Comment: We think this, because we always find new vulnerabilities when we look at the same security device, system, or program a second or third time, and because we always find vulnerabilities that others miss, and vice versa.


Thanks for Nothin’ Maxim: A vulnerability assessment that finds no vulnerabilities or only a few is worthless and wrong.


Arrogance Maxim: The ease of defeating a security device or system is proportional to how confident/arrogant the designer, manufacturer, or user is about it, and to how often they use words like “impossible” or “tamper-proof”.


Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid Maxim: If you’re not running scared, you have bad security or a bad security product.

Comment: Fear is a good vaccine against both arrogance and ignorance.


So We’re In Agreement Maxim: If you’re happy with your security, so are the bad guys.


Ignorance is Bliss Maxim: The confidence that people have in security is inversely proportional to how much they know about it.


Comment: Security looks easy if you’ve never taken the time to think carefully about it.


Weakest Link Maxim: The efficacy of security is determined more by what is done wrong than by what is done right.

Comment: Because the bad guys typically attack deliberately and intelligently, not randomly.


Safety Maxim: Applying the methods of safety to security doesn’t work well, but the reverse may have some merit.

Comment: Safety is typically analyzed as a stochastic problem, whereas the bad guys typically attack deliberately and intelligently, not randomly. For a discussion of the reverse problem, see RG Johnston, Journal of Safety Research 35, 245-248 (2004).


High-Tech Maxim: The amount of careful thinking that has gone into a given security device, system, or program is inversely proportional to the amount of high-technology it uses.

Comment: In security, high-technology is often taken as a license to stop thinking critically.


Dr. Who Maxim: “The more sophisticated the technology, the more vulnerable it is to primitive attack. People often overlook the obvious.”

Comment: A quote from Tom Baker as Dr. Who in The Pirate Planet (1978)


Low-Tech Maxim: Low-tech attacks work (even against high-tech devices and systems).

Comment: So don’t get too worked up about high-tech attacks.


Nowadays I work as a security consultant; I have collected eleven pages worth of Dr. Johnston's wisdom - I keep them posted on the wall by my desk at work. In designing physical security systems, and even in the evolving field of cybersecurity, I find that all of these truisms apply sooner or later. - Sean Linnane





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DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP

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"A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later."


"Do everything you ask of those you command."


"Do not make excuses, whether it’s your fault or not."


"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."


"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."


"No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike."


"Say what you mean and mean what you say."


"Take calculated risks."


"The more senior the officer, the more time he has to go to the front."


"The only tactical principle which is not subject to change; it is, “To use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."


"War is simple, direct and ruthless."









- General Patton's Maxims

GENERAL PATTON’s MAXIMS

General George S. Patton III "Old Blood and Guts" 1885–1945

These are the Leadership Maxims of General George S. Patton. They apply equally to all levels of Leadership, whether you are leading an army across Africa and Europe, running a Fortune-500 company, or managing an auto spare parts store on Mainstreet, USA.

A commander will command.

A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.

Be alert to the source of trouble.

By perseverance, study, and eternal desire, any man can become great.

Do everything you ask of those you command.

Do more than is required of you.

Do not fear failure.

Do not make excuses, whether it’s your fault or not.

Do not take counsel of your fears.

Do your duty as you see it and damn the consequences.

Fame never yet found a man who waited to be found.

Genius is an immense capacity for taking pains.

Give credit where it’s due.

Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.

Haste and speed are not synonymous.

I prefer a loyal staff officer to a brilliant one.

In case of doubt, attack.

It’s the unconquerable soul of man, not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory.

Keep a quick line of communications.

Lack of orders is no excuse for inaction.

Make your plans to fit the circumstances.

Many soldiers are led to faulty ideas of war by knowing too much about too little.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.

Never fight a battle when nothing is gained by winning.

Never let the enemy pick the battle site.

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike.

Officers must assert themselves by example and by voice.

One must choose a system and stick to it.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Select leaders for accomplishment – not for affection.

Strategy and tactics do not change. Only the means of applying them are different.

Success is how you bounce on the bottom.

Take calculated risks.

The leader must be an actor.

The more senior the officer, the more time he has to go to the front.

The only thing to do when a son-of-a-bitch looks cross-eyed at you is to beat the hell out of him right then and there.

The soldier is the army.

The only tactical principle which is not subject to change; it is, “To use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.”

There is only one type of discipline, perfect discipline.

War is simple, direct and ruthless.

We can never get anything across unless we talk the language of the people we are trying to instruct.

You must be single minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.

You’re never beaten until you admit it.

"We're not just going to shoot the bastards, we're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks."

We could use more than a few leaders like Patton in this day and age - S.L.