Skip to content
Menu
  • Original Short Fiction
Menu

Why Your Secure Building Isn’t

Posted on 4 November 2015 by The Tactical Hermit

Physical Security

Better Security through Penetration Testing

My book, Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy, provides the first in-depth investigation into the work of red teams in the military, intelligence, homeland security and private sectors, revealing the best practices, most common pitfalls, and most effective applications of their work. Below is an adaptation.

In the course of conducting interviews for my book, Red Team, I unintentionally broke into an allegedly highly secure government building. After initially failing to obtain a meeting with a senior official in a government security position, I requested that a mutual acquaintance pass along a short e-mail, from a Gmail account, describing my research project and questions that I hoped to ask. Weeks later, an administrative assistant reached out to me and let me know that this senior official had agreed to meet me in person. The administrative assistant and I spoke over the phone to arrange a time the following week, mid-morning at the senior official’s office. The assistant then sent me a confirmation e-mail with the location, different transportation options to get there, and a reminder to bring my government-issued ID.

The office building was a highly secure facility, set back more than a block from traffic, and ringed with blast walls, a series of controlled-access points, armed guards, surveillance cameras, and metal detectors. Once past the access points, visitors are required to show their IDs, have scheduled a meeting that appears in a shared internal database, get their photograph taken, receive a visitor’s photo badge that is always supposed to displayed, and, finally, have an employee escort them through the hallways.

After arriving five minutes late, I was waiting in a long line to pass through a metal detector when a security guard answered a phone call and then shouted a close approximation of my name. I stepped out of line to answer, and before I could say anything, she said, “Oh you can go ahead, they are waiting for you upstairs.” I walked to the front of the line, thinking that I still needed to be screened, but she simply waved her arm and declared, “No, no, you can just go around and head on in.” Next, I approached a front desk, which several armed guards stood behind, to show my passport, get my picture taken, and receive my badge. Before I got to the desk, a young man — likely an intern — asked, “Are you Zenko?” After I nodded affirmatively, he replied, “Okay, let’s go.” Not only was I never asked to show my ID, checked against the internal database, or provided a badge, but, before the young man and I walked away, a guard behind the desk handed me a slip of paper that mysteriously read: “SCREENED.” I placed it in my pocket. We then took the next available elevator to the senior official’s office.

Read the Remainder at Medium

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tactical Hermit Substack

Subscribe

Recent Post

  • Morning Laugh
  • Happy White Father’s Day!
  • The Surveillance State: Hackers are tampering with USB charging stations at Airports
  • Hidden History: How Israel Acquired Nukes
  • In Times Like These You Gotta Laugh To Make it Through…
General Franco (2008-2024)

Book of the Month

Fellow Conspirators

Area Ocho

American Partisan

Western Rifle Shooters Association

Brushbeater

Von Steuben Training and Consulting

CSAT

Politically Incorrect Humor and Memes

Freedom is Just Another Word

Prepared Gun Owners

Fix Bayonets

The Firearm Blog

BorderHawk

Cold Fury

Don Shift SHTF

NC Renegades

Big Country Ex-Pat

The Bayou Renaissance Man

Bustednuckles

The Feral Irishman

It Ain’t Holy Water

Evil White Guy

Pacific Paratrooper

Badlands Fieldcraft

Riskmap

Stuck Pig Medical

Swift Silent Deadly

Spotter Up

The Survival Homestead

Bacon Time!

SHTF Preparedness

Sigma 3 Survival School

The Organic Prepper

The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Homestead

Texas Gun Rights

The Gatalog

Taki’s Magazine

Defensive Training Group

The Trail Up Blood Hill

No White Guilt

Europe Renaissance

Vermont Folk Truth

The Occidental Observer

The Dissident Right

Daily Stormer

American Renaissance

Blacksmith Publishing

Arktos Publishing

Antelope Hill Publishing

White People Press

White Rabbit Radio

White Papers Substack

Viking Life Blog (Archived)

Identity Dixie

The Texian Partisan

Southern Vanguard

League of the South

The Unz Review

Dissident Thoughts

The Third Position

Renegade Tribune

COPYRIGHT NOTICE/DISCLAIMER & FAIR USE ACT

All blog postings, including all non-fiction and fictional works are copyrighted and considered the sole property of the Tactical Hermit Blog. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in the short stories and novelettes are entirely fictional and are of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or organizations or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental, The information contained in the articles posted to this site are for informational and/or educational purposes only. The Tactical Hermit disclaims any and all liability resulting from the use or misuse of the information contained herein.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any of the companies that advertise here. 

Much of the information on this blog contains copyrighted material whose use has not always been specifically authorized by the rightful copyright owner. This material is made available in an effort to educate and inform and not for remuneration. Under these guidelines this constitutes "Fair Use" under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. The publisher of this site DOES NOT own the copyrights of the images on the site. The copyrights lie with the respective owners.

© 2025 | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme