4D - Security concept

Security has become a major concern for every organisation nowadays. Ensuring safety of the various assets and resources, preventing unauthorised usage or pilferage has been engaging continuous attention by top managements. Safety and security of people working in the organisation, physical assets, technology platforms and enormous data at their centres have been becoming more and more challenging each day. Leakage of sensitive data, entry of unauthorised persons into place of work and pilferage of valuable items and tools causes many operational risk issues as well as threat to life and liberty of people working for organisations. Lot of money is being spent by entities to tighten security measures, both physical security as well as technology based security tools. These concerns are equally applicable to households and small establishments.

During a visit to a pre-school day care centre where toddlers and small children are taken care of when mothers are at work, I was impressed with the security systems employed by them. The entry and exit were restricted and could be made only when smart cards issued by the centre were used at the door. In case the visitor did not have the card, identification was made by speaking through a speaking tube even while the person inside is able to view the visitor through the glass door. Strangers and first time visitors are subject to additional verification to make certain that the visitor is indeed bonafide and genuine. As a further security measure, parents are contacted over phone before the child is handed over to the visitor. It is indeed a big responsibility to run such centres.

A house magazine of an organisation carried an article about the 4-D concept of security in organisations. These concepts can equally be applied in houses and small establishments. What is this 4-D concept? It simply involves four levels of combinations of various steps that can take care of security concerns. Strict observance of these measures ensures a high level of security atmosphere and a intruder would find it difficult to attempt his adventures in these establishments. The 4-D concept deals with the four levels of security measures; Deter, Deny, Delay and Detect.

The first step of "Deter" puts in place systems that ensure intruders are made to desist even from attempting an entry. The measures may include barbed wires on the perimeter walls, CCTV surveillance, posting of watchmen and adequate lighting around the establishment. Even display of boards that claim "This place is under CCTV surveillance" are capable of ensuring that a casual intruder does not proceed on misadventure. Any effort to gain entrance in such places requires serious preparation on the part of the intending intruders. This filters and narrows down the likely attempts at gaining unauthorised entry.

The second step of "Deny" involves keeping the unauthorised persons out by another series of measures. The measures include use of access control through biometric cards, manned entry verification through security guards at entry points, segregation of areas to restrict entry only to a specified area in the establishment, keeping the doors locked, use of X-ray machines to scan bags and packets etc. By use of such measures, gaining entry is made difficult at the first stage. Even after gaining entry, access is restricted to designated area thus ensuring protection of other segregated areas.

The third step of "Delay" ensures slowing down the progress of an intruder even after gaining entry bypassing the first two levels. The measures comprise stop doors, window grills, strong rooms with vault doors for housing servers and areas of sensitive work stations, time locks and embedded cash safes. Some organisations have entire floors of buildings as out of bounds for even their own employees. Additional security features control entry into such highly restricted areas. It is no surprise that many employees do not even know the nature of work or research going on such restricted parts of their own buildings.

It may not always be possible to prevent planned and organized gangs from gaining entry despite the above three levels of measures. The 4th D concept of "Detect" comes into play now. Detect involves monitoring and actively detecting unauthorised entrants by watching CCTV monitor screens, placing anti-burglar alarms, installation of CCTV with night vision facility, auto-dialers with security alarm systems etc. This helps in preventing unauthorised activity even after an intruder gains entry by bypassing the first three levels of security.

The concept of 4-D security can be applied to our households as well. Keeping the doors locked, storing valuables in locked cabinets, proper care of valuables and avoiding easy access to valuables at homes can be effective security measures.  

Employing the 4-D concept keeps entities in readiness to face security threats from outsiders. However, it is important to remember that all these measures are only effective when the people manning these systems and tools are vigilant and careful at all times. A small slip or laxity in following the prescribed procedures even for a small span of time can fail the entire system. "Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty" is a saying attributed to Thomas Jefferson. It is said that it was used by others earlier to him as well. Eternal vigilance is indeed the 5th, or even the first concept of security! 

102 Floors in 14 Months

Newspapers in Bangalore had a breaking news on 26th May, 2014.  "Bharata Ratna" Prof. C N R Rao underpass, near Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Karnataka and was ready for use by the public. On the next day, my taxi driver took this route to reach Bangalore International Airport.  We entered the underpass with the hope of turning towards Mekhri Circle. The entry towards Mekhri Circle was blocked with barricades and we had to drive around an extra four or five kilometers to get to the airport road!  For the record, the underpass was completed, inaugurated and in use.

The work on this underpass was scheduled to begin in 2008.  Estimated project cost was 300 million rupees.  The estimated time for completion was 18 months.  Work actually started in 2010. Commencement of the work itself was six months after it was expected to be completed.  As soon as the construction work started, the connecting roads were partially blocked  to enable construction work to progress smoothly.  Blocking progressed quite fast but not the construction.  The general public suffered silently, but they truly believed that this is a way of life.  Two Chief Ministers changed and third Chief Minister inspected the progress(?) of the work in October, 2013.  He set a new deadline of December 2013 for completion.  Since the work was not complete by that time, naturally a new deadline of March, 2014 was set.  The work continued even after this date. Fortunately, the work was reported as completed before another deadline was given. After 52 months from commencement of the work, it was declared completed.  Time overrun was only a very low 289% and not allowing it to cross 300% was no mean achievement.  Labor problems and conflict between two contractors were cited as the reasons for the short delay.  Cost overrun is not disclosed, but interest costs alone would be a significant amount.

Bangalore's cricket stadium, known as KSCA's Chinnaswamy stadium was constructed in the mid 70s.  Mumbai's Wankhade stadium was also constructed around the same time.  Construction of KSCA stadium progressed at a snail's pace due to shortage of cement in those days.  S K Wankhade was Education Minister in the Maharashtra government at that time and the Mumbai stadium, though started afterwards, was completed much before the Bangalore stadium.  Wankhade stadium has since been renovated as well and its seating capacity has also been increased. KSCA stadium stands today as if it is a relic from the past and despite the entry fee for matches going up steeply, spectator amenities are woefully inadequate.  Clubhouse and corporate stands are no doubt maintained luxuriously.   

Last month (17th April 2014), another interesting news item was flashed across many newspapers.  A new  Ford Mustang was placed on the 85th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York, USA.(Picture given alongside is taken from the internet).  This was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a similar event that took place in 1964.  As the elevators in the building were not big enough to hold the car, it was broken into six individual assemblies and carried to the 85th floor observation deck.  The deck is open to public to view the Manhattan skyline and the New York city buildings from 8AM till midnight 2 AM (18 hours).  The six assemblies were assembled on the observatory during the six hour interval!

In the background of inordinate delays in completion of projects and ever extending deadlines, the story of construction of the Empire State Building makes a very interesting reading.  This building with 102 floors and standing 1250 feet tall was constructed in only 16 months time.  Construction was done in the year 1930-31 and the technology support in construction industry and civil engineering was nowhere near what is available today.  The building was constructed during the period of "Great Depression", a period of severe worldwide economic distress that started in 1930 and lasted for nearly a decade.  Second World War started in 1939 and "Great Depression" was forgotten in its pressures and fury.

The Empire State building stands on a site area of 83,860 square feet and was constructed after demolishing the Waldorf-Astoria hotel that stood there before construction of this building.  Demolition of the hotel building was  done in 9 days, during the end of January 1930.  Construction of the Empire State Building took only 16 months from that time.  Actual period of construction from foundation laying to 102 floors and inauguration of the building was only 14 months! Construction speed was 4 to 5 stories per week and 3,400 workers were used at the peak construction time.  The building was completed four months ahead of schedule. Actual cost of construction was 25 million dollars against an estimate of 41 million dollars.  Thus there was neither cost overrun or time overrun.  The depression helped in reducing construction costs.  There are 1,860 steps from the ground level to the 102nd floor.  But the 73 elevators in the building moving at the astonishing speed of 600 feet to 1400 feet per minute carry occupants of the building and over four million visitors each year in a flash, to the observatory on 85th floor and beyond.

Time and cost overruns can be curtailed only if there is strong resistance and expression of public sentiment against them.  Otherwise, delays and escalating costs coupled with untold misery to the general public will continue to be an accepted part of life.         

Headwinds and Tailwinds

The line before security clearance at Philadelphia International Airport was quite long on Monday morning and growing by the minute.  As it was the first working day after a long weekend and New Years day celebrations, all morning flights were fully booked and everyone was in a hurry to get cleared through the security gates.  It appeared that my flight may be missed due to delay in clearance as there were dozens of others ahead of me.  A good samaritan helped clearance of passengers for flights taking off in the next few minutes on urgent basis and I was the last passenger to board our flight.  As I squeezed into my seat between two other passengers, take-off was announced.  "Even the darkest cloud has a silver lining", they say.  That was true here as I was spared the usual long wait at the boarding gate.

The pilot announced that the flight to Seattle on the Pacific coast would take five hours and four minutes.  As the aircraft took-off and started gaining altitude, the person sitting on my side asked me what the time was.  When I replied that it was 7.50 AM,  he said "See, the flight is already 20 minutes late.  Time table says the flight takes six hours.  Pilot says it takes five hours and four minutes.  How it is possible?  I do not understand".  He appeared frustrated and I felt it was better to leave the issue at that instead of explaining the situation to him.  I was actually happy that the flight was 20 minutes late or else I may have missed it.

What my fellow passenger did not realise was that we were the luckier lot as our flight was not cancelled, unlike thousands of flights from cities like Chicago and St. Louis.  North America is reeling under the effect of a phenomena called by meteorologists as "Polar Vortex" and described as "Polar Pig" by the media.  Polar Vortex has brought down the temperatures to as low as minus 50 degrees celsius in some areas.  Airport operations are hit as aviation fuel froze in the sources and the crew were unable to fill aircraft tanks.  Many inches of snow has rendered venturing outdoors a high risk idea. Schools are closed and people have been advised to stay indoors.  In many cities driving has been banned except in emergency situations. Icy roads and sidewalks have made journey on the roads treacherous.  We were at least airborne and on our way though the pilot warned us of a bumpy ride, in his own very polite language.  Despite this, journey by air was far more safer than on the icy and windy roads in life threatening temperatures.

How does the actual flight time happen to be much lower than the time displayed on time tables?   Timetables refer to terminal-to-terminal time while pilots refer to actual flight time between take-off and landing.  Transport operators, whether by road, rail or air, usually provide a cushion for the unexpected delays that may take place during the actual travel.  On time arrival at destinations is one key performance parameter for transport and airline companies.  A slightly extended journey time provides buffer to absorb unexpected delays in starting time and delays on the way.  Hence the arrival of the destination would be as per schedule despite slight delays at the starting point.  The on time performance figures are thus protected and make for good reading and publicity.  In the case of airlines, there are also likely delays due to clogging of runways and weather related issues.  If the take-off is on schedule and everything else also goes fine, arrival at the destination may even be before scheduled time.  Besides this, scheduling flights this way make further utilization of the aircraft more scientific and practical.

In the case of air travel, wind factor is a key influence in the actual journey time.  "Head wind" and "Tail wind" are two components that affect the duration of the flight.  A headwind is a wind blowing against the direction of the travel and a tail wind is a wind blowing in the direction of the travel.  In the case of aircrafts, headwind has the effect of decreasing the speed of the plane whereas the tailwind adds to its speed.  Journey in the air with tail wind is, therefore, faster than journey with a headwind.  For this reason, actual time of journey between two places in the same direction may vary on different days and even at different times on the same day.  Proverbs in different languages to take advantage of the direction of the wind blowing have been in use for a long long time.  Of course, our politicians have mastered this art perfectly.

Air traffic controls and pilots use the concept of headwind, tailwind as well as cross-wind to advantage in their operations.  Take-offs and landings of aircrafts are scheduled on different runways (in airports with multiple runways) providing headwinds as a headwind is favorable for both take-off and landing.  Tailwinds are favorable when the aircraft is in flight.  When we are engrossed in our own world while traveling, experts at ATC and pilots are busy with all these details.  Thanks to their continuous efforts, air travel is far more safer than travel on the land.  Many may not agree with this but that is what the truth is.  An aircraft tragedy attracts all the more attention and the fear associated with air travel is more in minds than in reality.  Modern aircrafts take every contingency into account and safety standards are upgraded from time to time.  Any accident that happens is like any other mechanical failure and despite all these safety efforts.

While I was contemplating all these issues, the pilot announced landing at Seattle-Tacoma airport five minutes before the expected arrival time.  Despite warnings of the bumpy ride made by him at the time of take-off, the flight was very smooth except for the initial half hour.  The aircraft had left all the cold weather behind and moved to the much warmer western coast.  My co-passenger who expressed his annoyance on the twenty minute delay in take-off was unaware of all these and lost in his wonderful sleep along the entire flight.  He did not get any sweet dreams, I am sure of that for he did not smile even once in his sleep.  I had to nudge him to wake him up as I had to pass him before getting off the plane.

Many thanks to the weathermen who are now able to predict changes in the weather so accurately and the ATC staff and airline crew.  They make air travel a lot safer though it often goes unnoticed.