Detection without prevention is inadequate

An adequate security plan, whether it's for data or physical spaces, must address two critical elements: prevention and detection. Deploying a preventive measure (e.g., a barrier) without complementary detection facilities assumes 100 percent effectiveness for prevention. Security experts never make that assumption.

Conversely, implementing detection facilities without adequate preventive measures in place allows the incursions to occur without challenge. Personnel will be informed, but by the time they can respond, the damage may have been done and the perpetrators long gone.

Some politicians have suggested that instead of completing the existing barrier on the southern border (a preventive measure), the U.S. should deploy "technology" in the form of drones and sensors (detection facilities). These measures would, indeed, alert U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel of people crossing the border in unauthorized areas.

But they would do nothing to impede their progress. By the time CBP personnel could respond, the border-crossers would be scattered across the landscape. While a barrier/wall/fence is not 100 percent effective, it is an impediment and, possibly, a deterrent.

Detection without prevention is not an adequate security plan for a business, a home, a database, or the border. But neither is prevention without detection.

Don R. Harris

St. Charles