Jean Forrest

I sat in class today and listened to Jean Forrest, a representative of DMDC, give a presentation on why we should consider an internship at DMDC. As I was listening, I could hear the faint whispers of something evil grow louder and louder. It began with Jean's overall tone and demeanor. She seems to simply not like dealing with people - or doesnt understand people - or is one word away from getting fired, so shes deathly afraid, or all of the above.
Then she's going through her powerpoint and explaining this and that, and on one of the early frames she stops to make a big deal about the cac cards. Jean spoke of these carda as if they were the major part of one's job as an employee at DMDC.
I bit my tongue as long as I could because my soul was on fire. I wanted to scream out but could not find the words until now. I dont care about a cac card. If I need to care about a cac card, I dont want to work at dmdc. To me a cac is the same as a drivers license.
With a drivers license, you start with a need. You want to drive. You go down to the dmv and get a license. Then you put the license in your pocket and never think about it again, because the purpose of the license is fulfilled simply by having it.
EVEN IF you needed to physically insert your license into the dashboard before your car will start, the license itself still would not be a major part of driving. I can not emphasize this enough, and I want a formal apology from Jean Forrest for raising my level of irritation beyond bounds.
When I could bite my tongue no longer, I raised my hand and asked Jean, "Why is the cac a good thing?" trying to be positive. She immediately, without the slightest composing in her mind of comprehensible, human language and words, went into another long explanation on privacy matters. I did not follow up, but of course I wanted to say straight up, the cac card is a CARD. If privacy is an issue, then make things private. The card itself is not the holy grail. If someone wanted to move information out of DMDC, even if they have proper authorization, they could. It's not hard. Ive worked there. All you need to do is simply write down the info as you see it on the screen. You, who have a cac card, were able to see the info. You with the cac card were able to read it - the capacity of your job requires you to read it.
If you write it down, put the slip of paper in your pocket, with bubble gum wrappers, and leave work, and go home, and throw your trash out into the garbage, and some bum rummages your garbage and finds the paper, then the security has been breached, even if you did not intend to breach it... and especially regardless of a cac card.
Further - I need to say that I think DMDC, if they are so concerned with security, should simply be secure. Or maybe the problem is, they know they hire idiots that dont have common sense about "security". Jean said it herself, the people in the phone center are "lower". DMDC must be deathly afraid of one of those idiots doing something stupid, so each and every one of the stake holders (Jean presumably included) must be downing a gallon of pepto bismol every single night because the reality of a security breach is just a breath away - and apparently their jobs hang in the balance.
I think this is stupid!
Solution:
1) Dont hire idiots that tend to make irreparable mistakes.
2) If the information is indeed not very secure, then admit it. Lets lower the peoples expectation of "security". Just admit that human beings work at the office and sometimes information can fall into the wrong hands. Matter of fact, most mishandling of sensitive information never results in any harm.
3) If the information is in fact secure - theres nothign to worry about! You dont need to be a B**** to the cac card anymore. Just, as an after thought, happen to mention, "Oh yeah, we got these really neat looking cards. There computerized and everything!"

Uggghhhh,.....
But thats not why i walked out of class today.
I walked out of class because Jean had Rett explain what he did at the DMDC. Rett said he writes web pages. Jean asked if he uses databases. Rett said yes, that he uses MySql. Jean immediately jumped in with... and I am not making this up...
"Yes. We store our data in databases because it is more secure."

I laughed. I got up. I left the room.

But in the big scheme of the things, I cant put words to that kind of mentality. What do you call a person that is caught up in something, such that they dont see or care about anything else (such as what data actually is, and how it is stored, etc). I guess the word is "fanatic". "Jean is a security fanatic". I think that might sum it up nicely.

If I am not a security fanatic, would I want to work at DMDC? Would you all want me if I was not a B**** to the cac card?