Examining Security

In my town, I use the local county council building as my postal address, although I’m not based there – my office is 45 miles away and so I often work from home. Because I’m not actually based in the local office, I’m not allowed a swipe card, which is daft, as I’m not based at County Hall either, yet I have a swipe card for many more miles of corridors there! Anyway, for this reason, every time I visit the local office, I have to ring the bell outside, wait for the front-desk security to notice me and let me in (there is no buzzer or anything, they have to notice a little light gently glow and then actually get up, walk right across the width of the building, turn the handle and open the door), then I have to sign in, giving my name, company, mother’s maiden name, favourite chocolate bar, car registration, who I’m seeing (even though I’m not necessarily visiting anyone) and expected time of departure. Then the same front-desk security person has to escort me through to the offices, leaving the front desk unmanned, so anyone else who might be trying to get in just has to wait outside in the freezing cold. This happens every time; even though they all now know me, the front-desk security still insists on doing it.
 
I do understand the reason for signing in – health and safety in the event of a fire, etc. And good security is admirable, right?

Yesterday, I called the security desk because I was expecting some exam papers to be delivered. They confirmed they had actually arrived the previous day and had been taken through to the admin office. This was a bit weird because I have an arrangement where the admin office email me if there’s any post to collect – and I hadn’t heard a thing. I called the admin office and they had no trace of them, nor did they remember them being brought through… Oh oh… So back on to the front-desk security, who insisted they had taken them through, although they might have given them to someone else… More oh oh… This was getting silly; they were clearly in the building and I might as well go there and help the admin team who were, by then, running round like headless chickens trying to find the exam papers.
 
By the time I had skidded to work, piled into one snowdrift and gone through the tedious access rigmarole, they had found my exam papers.
 
BUT
 
This same conscientious front desk security had OPENED the packet when it arrived and thrown away the polythene security bag. The discarded packet was clearly marked for my attention, it had "CONFIDENTIAL" emblazoned across it and even said that the contents were exam papers to be kept in a secure place such as a safe. Instead, the OPENED exam papers were sitting in a general-use in-tray, available for the whole world to look through and had been there, fully exposed, for 24 hours. They were no longer marked “Confidential” and so nobody would think twice about looking to see what the papers were. This is really serious and we could conceivably have our status as an exam centre taken away. Needless to say, the person who actually opened the package was conveniently off duty…

Today, I shall be composing a nasty email to somebody!