When I was in Durban, my mom raised a very fair point when we were trapped behind a cash in transit van at the traffic lights: why do cash in transit vans label themselves so clearly that they are carrying a lot of valuables on them? Surely, it would be best to remain anonymous - yes have armed guards inside etc - but there is no need to proclaim on the side "Coin Security Service - Cash in Transit"!
And it is a valid point. In computer security, we maintain security through obscuring the data - sensitive data is encrypted. And encryption of data, is more akin to obfuscation, than to the popular lock and key. Encrypted data is still data - it is not packaged inside another data file. Instead, it has usually the same length, just looks different.
Surely, cash in transit vans can do something similar - after all, I don't think there are regulatory requirements for Cash in transit vans to state that they are potentially carrying valuables. They can just be armour plated vans with a guard inside them. And, maybe then we will have a lower attack rate on cash in transit vehicles - after all, to attack a cash in transit vehicle, you will first have to find one.
3 comments:
i have had that thought as well. then i shared it with someone and they too raised another consequent point: although there might be an overall reduction in cash-in-transit heists initially, there will be increasingly more leaks from the internal personnel wrt these encrypted vehicles. and soon, the frequency of heists will increase yet again because we cannot trust our friends at the SAPS to do their work in containing such anticipated leaks.
what further irritates me with these vehicles is that they have this idea that they own the road. they will just randomly stop or do some obscure illegal turn or something, disturbing the whole flow of traffic in the process. i hate them!
Well, off course there is no point if the internal people give away the secrets! And that is another thing I find really depressing about the security industry: the salaries.
I worked out, that the body corporate back home in Durban roughly pays R1 500 a month per guard to the security company. Off course, the security company gets a cut, so the guards probably get about R1 000 to R 1 300 a month. With that kind of salary, how can you expect them to protect your valuables - esp if the valuables are worth more than him per month!
Security is about risk vs the cost of mitigating the risks. I wonder, at these type of salaries, do we create more risks?
A trained eye can spot an unmarked armoured car a mile away. The largest security firm in my country experimented with anonymous transports and discovered that the number of hold-ups did not decrease. In fact studies showed that you're better off with a clearly marked armoured truck. In case of a heist bystanders will immediatly realise what is going on.
We've also had several false alarms where people called the police because the saw armed men stepping out of a white unmarked truck in front of a bank.
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