[svfig-open] Stupid Security Awards for 2003

[Kevin Appert]

The results are in.  San Francisco figures prominently,  so perhaps the 
chamber of commerce should start promoting us as "The Stupidest Place On 
Earth".
If the text below is hosed, just go to the Risks website.

********************************
 From http://www.risks.org

Stupid Security Awards for 2003
Simon Davies <s.g.davies at lse.ac.uk>

Tue, 8 Apr 2003 20:20:30 +0100

Privacy Watchdog announces winners of competition to find the world's most
stupid security measures; Global quest has identified absurd and pointless
security requirements

Privacy International today announced the results of its competition to find
the worlds most pointless, intrusive and egregious security measures. The
competition, launched in February, attracted almost 5,000 nominations from
35 countries. While the air security sector dominated the competition,
nominations arose from almost all areas of private and public sector
activity. The winners include JFK Airport, T-Mobile (UK), Michigan
Correctional facilities and the Australian Government.

The "Stupid Security" award was judged by a distinguished international
panel of security and privacy experts and is intended to highlight the
absurdities of the security industry. Privacy International's director,
Simon Davies, said his group took the initiative because of "innumerable"
security initiatives around the world that had absolutely no genuine
security benefit.

"The extraordinary number of nominations indicates that the situation has
become ridiculous" said Mr Davies. "Security has become the smokescreen for
incompetent and robotic managers the world over.  The situation has become
more than an irritation to the public. It has become an outright danger".

The winners are:

Most Egregiously Stupid Award

* Winner: The Australian Government for a litany of pointless,
irritating and self-serving security measures

* Runner-Up: Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov for the 'Propiska' Identity Papers

Most Inexplicably Stupid Award

* Winner: Philadelphia International Airport for over-reaction to a bottle
of cologne

* Runner-Up: Heathrow Airport for quarantining a quantity of green tea

Most Annoyingly Stupid Award

* Winner: T-Mobile (UK) for pointless and idiotic financial security measures

* Runner-Up: Bay Area Rapid Transport (Bart) for closing its restrooms.

Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award

* Winner: Delta Terminal at JFK Airport for forcing a nursing mother
to drink still-warm bottles of her own breast milk

* Runner-Up: Carson City Correctional Facility, Michigan for forcing
women visitors to wear bras.

Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award

* Winner: San Francisco General Hospital for blind idiocy in its
identity checking procedures

* Runner-Up: San Francisco International Airport for endangering the public

* Dishonourable Mention: The New Yorker Hotel, New York for aggressive,
unnecessary and meaningless security measures.

Full details at http://www.privacyinternational.org/activities/stupidsecurity/
Simon Davies can be reached at simon at privacy.org  Phone (+44) 7958 466 552

[Note 1: Privacy International (PI) http://www.privacyinternational.org is a
human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by
governments and corporations, including wiretapping and national security
activities, ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, police information
systems, and medical privacy.]

[Note 2: (Disclaimer) PGN was one of the judges.]