People, as we like to say, are not paid enough to care. At-will employment, company-sponsored healthcare, etc. have employees so focused on their own wellbeing that protecting "the company" is the last thing on their minds, and I can't really blame them. That lady who you barged in on may very well have just been used to micromanaging jerks doing it to her all the time, so she has to seem busy.
Physical security, in my experience, comes down to giving people something to protect which actually benefits them to protect. All the technical controls in the building can fail and one person with enough skin in the game can kill an intrusion attempt in seconds.
Someone tried to crash through the main gate at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base two years ago. It did not end well for them.[1]
Attempt to crash the gate at CIA HQ last year. Drunk driver shot.[2]
Attempt to crash the gate at NSA HQ a few years ago. Two drugged-out "men dressed in women's clothing". Hit barrier, tried to turn around and escape, blocked by guard vehicle. One killed, one injured, one guard injured.[3]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQPKnNj8wM
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/shooting-cia-headquart...
https://web.archive.org/web/20181118010006/https://threader....
> I wanted to try and see if we could bypass the door entirely, and that’s where the canned air comes in. If you turn a can of compressed air upside down, it starts “boiling off cold gases.” These are not harmful in open spaces, and their temperature is well below freezing point even when gaseous. This can trigger a sensor that checks for temperature increases: First it sees a drop to -50C, thinks “Baby, it’s cold outside.” Then, the temperature starts rising again, and the sensor thinks “Oh, temperature going up?! Must be a human!” and opens the door. If this works, I will update my Mastodon. If it doesn’t, well I can still walk in after someone, so it’s a finding nonetheless.
I enjoyed it a lot.
I make as many typos as the next dog, but really. Don't kids today have the Internets to proofread their datas?
It reminded me of Deviant Ollam's stories such has his elevator security talk w/ Howard Payne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1vD5_b5I