Nathan's Occasional Blog

I added the Microsoft TechNet Radio RSS feed to my Zune desktop a long time ago, but never got around to listening to any of them.  While I’m working today I’m finally getting a chance to rectify that oversight.  🙂

I’m currently listening to an interview with Alan Levine from April 2006 (“TechNet Radio Security Series – an interview with Alcoa’s CSIO”).  At that time (maybe still today?) Alan was the Chief Security Officer for Alcoa, the aluminum company.  At one point (about 18 minutes in) he makes a great observation on how some people in IT try to secure everything for the simple fact that they can … “security for security’s sake” as he says.  It’s a bad idea, Alan explains…

“and if you don’t believe that, tonight when you go home park your car in the driveway with your wife.  You both get out and you go into the house, and before she can come in lock the door.  You’ll find out that security for security’s sake serves no purpose.”

I’m a huge fan of giving real-world, non-IT examples of tech scenarios to help people better understand what’s going on.  This is an awesome example of that … and one I’ll have to borrow!