Poll: Do you have a job that involves a security clearance?

w00t! nothing I do is all that secret, but I love that Lawrence's name is in one of the options.

If I told you I'd have to kill you.

No, but I think Lawrence does.

sorry to disappoint you all, but I'm afraid I had to vote 'no.'

At least that's what he tells us.

I have a few friends that I'm pretty sure need security clearance, one is a defence consultant and the other is a potato that works for the Initiative.

Do you have a job that involves a security clearance?

This information is only provided on a need to know basis. And you do not need know.

;-P

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. *nodnod*

-- Pauley :)

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about security clearance? Do you mean governmental or just...security clearance?� I can't get into the building without my swipey badge....and I have to have certain clearance levels to use certain functions in the mainframe....

But nothing governmental. I'm confooooosed on what to answer. :)

Yeah.� What she said.� SWIPEY BADGE!

yeah, I was confused on that too.

Like, I have keys that'll open anything where I work.... does that count?
O:-)

Yeah...there are definitely some very serious security protocols around what I do....we deal with members' personal information and there are laws and rules about how that needs to be protected.� Heck, part of my testing for this release cycle was security related--making sure folks in a certain profile could do functions in claims and those in another profile couldn't do anything.

But...in terms of top sekrit clearance like some took it to mean...no, not at all. The poll confused me muchly. :)

My building has the dumbest badge policy ever.

The building's normally open, so anyone can walk in the front door. There's a security desk once you're inside, and beyond that lies the stairwell and the elevator.

You need a badge to get into the stairwell from the ground floor. Once you're in the stairwell, you can get anywhere except the basement (parking garage).

You can call the elevator without a badge, but once it's there you need a badge to get anywhere other than the basement. So far so good.

The badges are floor-specifc. It's a four-floor building, but one company has most of the second and third floors. There used to be a cafe thing on the fourth floor, so anyone with a badge can use the elevator to get to the fourth floor. So anyone who works on the second floor can ring any floor; on the other hand, I work on the fourth floor, so I can only ring the fourth floor. But once I'm on the fourth floor, the stairwells are open-access so I can get to any other floor in the building.

On top of this, the elevators have a very aggressive idle function. That is, if you call the elevator to the first floor, enter it, and don't press any buttons, chances are the doors will close and it'll move to the third floor to wait for other calls. At which point you can hit the door-open button and once again (thanks to the stairwells) have access to the entire building.

I suppose the badge sensors are more intended to be some sort of psychological barrier, because they're sure as heck not a physical barrier.

We have to use the swipey badge to get in, in theory. But people tailgate all the time because who's going to shut the door in someone else's face when there's a steady stream of people walking in the building. Oh, and you need to show your badge to the security guy to get past (or get a temp one and sign in if you forgot it)...but...he's only there as of 7am and a ton of us get in before he gets there so it's again moot.

On the other side of the building it's stricter, because they installed these rotating door thingies. They will not turn until you swipe a badge and people can't tailgate. However it really screws things up if you're trying to bring a guest or have a cart or laptop trolley with you or god forbid, are handicapped. Then you have to buzz the security and they're very surly before letting you in the non-rotatey doors. (which can only be opened by them remotely.)

It's just all...very silly. Especially when we have to do our saturday code checkouts (like this coming weekend) where we tend to bring in lots of food and some folks bring in their kids to hang out and it's just hell getting through the rotatey doors and of course on Saturdays that's the only side of the building open so you can't go through the normal doors on the side I usually come in on. :)� We made the phantom security guys very cranky trying to get my cow orker's kids in. :)

God I'm babbling so much. :)

Lawrence.

*laughs*

exactly.

but wouldn't he be the best secret agent? no one would ever suspect him.

I would.

He's shifty.

:D

the really good counteragents would suspect he was a spy because no one would ever suspect him.

What if the mole was so good at being the mole that the Right Hand Man picked him to be the spy?

that way he could manipulate his own investigation! like in no way out!

...

i'm gonna have to think about this.

but my wife does.

but my husband does.

On a co-op job (put as simply as I can explain it, a paid internship) in summer of 2001, I didn't need to have a security clearance, but some people at the plant did, and they were very careful about who was allowed to enter the manufacturing plant from the office area, limiting access to US citizens only. If your ID tag had a black band across it, you were pretty much restricted to your office, and the bathroom.

Not at all surprising, considering they were manuafacturing steam turbine parts for US Navy aircraft carrier propulsion shafts.

-- Pauley

the summer I worked for the bird sanctuary, one of the Peregrine release sites was at the Monsanto St. Louis Corp Headquarters. There was an electronic ID card to get into the parking lot. Without it, you had to be escorted by Monsanto security.

The release box was on the roof of a building, and the roof key was also the master key to the entire building. To get it, you had to go to the security office and leave the badge. Then you needed your badge to get off the campus too.

one of the Peregrine release sites was at the Monsanto St. Louis Corp Headquarters.

Please don't tell me it was some sort of "frankenfowl" gig...

The temps had a separate entrance from everybody else. We had to be buzzed in and pick up nametags (you know, the "My Name Is," but in the place where I would normally write Rachel, "temp" had been inked in), then sign the little clipboard with the time we'd arrived. What did they think we were going to do-- leave the building with three years' worth of insurance claim paperwork? It was so depressing I left after three weeks for a minimum wage job.

my department has a little more access than the rest of Customer Service. in addition to regular customers, we have access to employee & what we call 999 accounts (company phones, paid for by the company). that & we have access to override credit applications. i had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (don't give out people's credit info like SSN, address, DOB... common stuff) & read the Fair Credit Reporting Act when i started. so, a little more than the average, but not much more.
oh, and we have swipey badges, too. whee. weird thing is our building gets locked down after 10 PM. we can't enter a floor from the stairwell (we can leave, but not re-enter... it's not a fire hazard, really) & we can only come in the front doors in front of the security desk. the elevators & lobby doors still work with a badge.

my husband does, and so does one of my closest friends.

so i'm a spook by association. fear me. greatly. ;)

Well, I am a Narc. Does that count?