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locked office doors

  • Oct. 10th, 2008 at 6:01 PM
planet
at work this morning a guy in a suit with laptop cases was hanging out around the front door, and when he saw me walking from the parking lot he came in behind me when i ran my badge. I kinda glanced at him to see if he had a badge, he didn't, but we're not usually to picky about that.

Then he asks, "Do you have access to the experimental area?"

um, okay dude. i told him I wasn't sure (although I was sure, I have all kinds of access) then asked who he was there to see. he said, "I'm not seeing anyone, I just need into my office."

I paused and was like, "DO YOU HAVE A BADGE?"

he said "no, I forgot everything today." he sort of starred at me. We have a security office that will issue you a temporary badge if you forget yours, it's not a huge deal, sort of annoying but doable.

I asked his name. He told me. Then he said, "I'm the ___ PROGRAM MANAGER! I was in your presentation last week at the VP staff!"

Okay, informative enough. I let him in and apologized... but I shouldn't have! This is a guy who I might have made eye contact with during that one presentation to 30 people, but we've never been introduced, he's not my program manager, I can't memorize all of them. And besides... if I was a high-ranking company guy on a secret experimental program, I'd be pleased if a low-rank took the time and energy to question me before granting access to a secret area! It means we're kind of pretending to have security here! Sort of like when my signature is a little worn off on my credit card, so the clerk asks to see an ID... I'm not mad, go her, she's keeping people's credit cards safe.

wtf?

Comments

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[info]binaryathena wrote:
Oct. 10th, 2008 11:28 pm (UTC)
Well, that was definitely a security breach, but if you'd told him that, he'd have considered you a b*ll-b*sting b*tch. Unless it was a security test, and you failed. Yes, I am that much of a worry wart. But I grew up in a place where security was very serious, my Dad worked at the Savannah River Plant, where they made plutonium. And when my Dad grew a beard for a play he was in, his entire carpool has to sign affidavits that he was the correct owner of his badge. At SRP, the guards had guns, though.
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[info]tara3056 wrote:
Oct. 11th, 2008 04:10 pm (UTC)
Such a small world! I'm from South Carolina too (Barnwell, which borders SRP) and my stepdad worked for SRP for 20+ years.
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[info]infinimpulse wrote:
Oct. 10th, 2008 11:50 pm (UTC)
I wouldn't have let him in... my luck he'd be using a social engineering tactic to get in and eff stuff up. If people want to get pissy at me for not letting them in that's fine with me. Not my problem they don't have their shit together.
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[info]dreamingkat wrote:
Oct. 11th, 2008 01:05 am (UTC)
Yesterday, with all the issues we were having, one of the VIP clients that I was trying to convince to go to my friends business forgot his password. He was amused, but not upset, that I asked him a few questions. He even volunteered a little information.

I would have escorted him to the security office, not his office...
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[info]belgand wrote:
Oct. 11th, 2008 01:44 am (UTC)
The first story here has always been one of my favorites for this sort of thing. In theory the Army actually cares about security, orders, that sort of thing. Of course, that doesn't mean a hell of a lot when you get into one of those problems where someone feels that they're important enough that the rules don't apply to them.
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[info]kwins wrote:
Oct. 11th, 2008 02:02 am (UTC)
At my job, you don't get in without a badge, period. I doesn't matter if you sit right next to me. If you don't have a badge, you're gonna go to security and have them give you one. There are cameras on all the doors, and if they catch you letting someone in, you're in deep doo-doo!

If you're not supposed to be letting people in and a PM is trying stuff like that, it sounds like they're not doing enough training. You did the right thing in verifying his right to access.
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[info]feanelwa wrote:
Oct. 11th, 2008 11:47 am (UTC)
A high-ranking person who gets angry when somebody won't take a stranger at their word and let them into the building, is a total security risk. You may as well issue a security pass to everybody in the world if he's going to act like that.
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[info]treefox wrote:
Oct. 16th, 2008 12:30 pm (UTC)
Do you have a flag?

No flag, no country.
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