What is good security?

Consider these two scenarios:

Scenario 1 - the office

A worker enters his 30 storey office building in a hurry to join a client meeting. His key card fails to open the barriers and since the lobby is busy registering visitors, he quickly decides to step over the barriers.

A security guard on the far side observes him jumping the barrier and initiates security protocols that sets off an alarm, locks the lifts and locks all the doors in the lobby. The worker is accosted by security and seconds later the alarm is lifted.

Is this good security?

What if I told you, that the man was "the boss" and effectively paying for an entire floor's worth of rent in a building with own 50% occupancy?

In my opinion good security would have been for the security guard to greet the boss. If the boss had any trouble with his authentication token, the guard would quickly help him overcome the check. And if the boss decided to jump over the barrier? Perhaps a polite compliment about the agility of the boss?

Good security is about relationships!

Scenario 2 - the home

A house has been secured with security gate, screen door, door lock and alarm. It takes someone who is familiar with the system at least 3 minutes to open or close the 4 layers of protection.

However in practice the process is much slower because two hands and several keys are required. The gate needs an electronic button. The screen door requires you lift the handle as you are unlocking it. The door lock requires a double twist. The alarm requires a keycode.

In practice at least one of these layers are left "unlocked" for convenience. In practice if there was an intruder it would take too long to lock any one of these layers.

This in my opinion, this is poor security. I prefer doors that lock as you close them. I prefer one door. I prefer cameras to log events. I prefer panic buttons to raise alerts.

Good security is about convenience!