Re:Congressman's phone password is 111111
by tzs on Thursday October 24, 2019 @02:01PM
(#21347325)
A friend of mine had an amusing story about a visit to a secure facility. He was an engineer in the late '80s or early '90s at company that made some kind of custom text search hardware. He was sent to a customer site to do some service on one of the machines.
The customer was some government intelligence agency (he didn't tell me which one). The machine was in a small room, which also had a printer. To get to that room, you had to walk through a big room full of workers at desks.
Before entering that big room, his escort would press a button beside the door that apparently signaled to those in the room that an outsider was going to come through. That would make some audible signal in the room, and start some red lights flashing on the ceiling. Everyone in the room then had to clear their desks, putting all their papers in their drawers and locking them, and returning the most secret document to their safes.
When all that was done, everyone returned to their desks and then someone would open the door, my friend's escort would tell him to not look around, and would escort him through to the room with the machine. The door would be closed and locked, with my friend and the escort in the machine room, and my friend could work on the machine. Out in the big room, the workers would take their work back out and go back to work.
Occasionally, someone in the big room wanted to use the printer in the machine room. Before they could do that, my friend had to be escorted out of the machine room, back through the big room, and out to the corridor...going through that whole "secure the room so an outsider can pass through" procedure to get back out, and then to get back in after the printout had been retrieved.
Unfortunately, my friend had a lunch that day which disagreed with him somewhat, so that afternoon there were also a few times he needed to get to the bathroom, which of course required going through the big room each time.
The customer was some government intelligence agency (he didn't tell me which one). The machine was in a small room, which also had a printer. To get to that room, you had to walk through a big room full of workers at desks.
Before entering that big room, his escort would press a button beside the door that apparently signaled to those in the room that an outsider was going to come through. That would make some audible signal in the room, and start some red lights flashing on the ceiling. Everyone in the room then had to clear their desks, putting all their papers in their drawers and locking them, and returning the most secret document to their safes.
When all that was done, everyone returned to their desks and then someone would open the door, my friend's escort would tell him to not look around, and would escort him through to the room with the machine. The door would be closed and locked, with my friend and the escort in the machine room, and my friend could work on the machine. Out in the big room, the workers would take their work back out and go back to work.
Occasionally, someone in the big room wanted to use the printer in the machine room. Before they could do that, my friend had to be escorted out of the machine room, back through the big room, and out to the corridor...going through that whole "secure the room so an outsider can pass through" procedure to get back out, and then to get back in after the printout had been retrieved.
Unfortunately, my friend had a lunch that day which disagreed with him somewhat, so that afternoon there were also a few times he needed to get to the bathroom, which of course required going through the big room each time.