Threats plaguing university spark discussion about ‘security theater’
There’s an interesting discussion going on at Bruce Schneier’s security blog regarding the disturbing string of bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh. The post is headlined: “Bomb Threats As a Denial-of-Service Attack.”
The University of Pittsburgh has been the recipient of 50 bomb threats in the past two months (over 30 during the last week). Each time, the university evacuates the threatened building, searches it top to bottom — one of the threatened buildings is the 42-story Cathedral of Learning — finds nothing, and eventually resumes classes. This seems to be nothing more than a very effective denial-of-service attack.
The number of threats is now up to 80
And the steps being taken by university officials and law enforcement are both predictable and what we’ve come to know as security theater.
Schneier’s conclusion, which I believe is spot on, is that it doesn’t matter whether the countermeasures are wise and effective or if they’re pointless and just for show, because those responsible have no practical choice but to employ them given public expectations and the near certainty that they will be fired if they do less and the worst happens.
In the comments, people who have actually thought this through offer all kinds of compelling reasons for the authorities to scale back their countermeasures even to the point of ignoring the threats.
Many of them are spot on, too … not that it matters.
