In my previous post, one bullet point was brought up about physical security and computer security and Ira Winkler brought up that physical security is often welcomed while computer security staffers are often not liked. Why is this?
The biggest single reason is simply rooted in culture. At home and outside work, people use computers in their daily lives to do many, many things. From looking at maps for driving directions, popular news, entertainment, distractions, looking up information on a topic, meeting new people, remeeting old friends, and on and on. Computers are used at home in a variety of ways, many of which are not necessarily safe, ethical, or healthy.
Physical security is present to make sure people don’t go where they should not be going, etc. This is not necessarily bad for people as they are not being limited in a way that takes something they would have already had. They didn’t have that access anyway, so there is no loss. But when security imposes computer limits (or the technology imposes those limits), no matter the benefit to the company, those actions involve taking away what users would normally be able to do.
Another lesser reason is the presence of physical security and the smiles they can give. Unfortunately, computer security staffers can’t smile through the computer as user data flows by their gates. Thus it can be easier to get mad at the unseen people in the security cubes. Likewise, as part of the general masses, people feel a bit safer and unconsciously accept the security of physical security guards and locks much easier than they do technical security measures and limitations. (This is the only stable reason for most of the TSA regulations; they shallowly make people feel safer without being really all that effective once you start thinking about it.)