US Top Secret Research Centers Facilities?

reply to post by darpa999


Only thing I've seen is fingerprint scanner and ID card swipe thing to get into the vault at Grand Forks AFB, ND. Its where we did our nuclear training stuff. That got you into a room with a door on the other end that wont open without the first one being closed. Then through the metal detector to check for phones and off to the TS/SCI room!

reply to post by darpa999


MIT? Doubtful.

The NTS has autonomous robot guards. There is a thread on ATS about them. The funny thing is they have big red buttons on them to turn them off. A Rachel resident said these robots were running around town. You know the drill, photos or it didn't happen. ;-)


I'd have to dust off "Body of Secrets", but I recall Bamford discusses the security measures at the NSA.The book is old and probably doesn't cost much used these days. It is well worth reading.

I doubt anyone is shooting people with lasers. It is hard to beat a glock for portability and stopping power. All these bases have small arms ranges, but I haven't see any base with a laser weapon range. Well at least not for the guards. [Edwards south base was the site of some directed energy weapons.]

Unless things have changed, Livermore site 300 security was all automated. They used to have the employee security training manual online.

Now are we dropping the base in the middle of nowhere requirement? That is the unique feature of Groom Lake.

Nellis uses badges with RFID. I suspect that is the norm at most government facilities. Even in corporate settings you get a RFID badge with CAC (smartcard) in it, or it uses a wireless version. Business computers (Dell, Lenovo) have the smartcard readers built it. Nowadays guarding the data is just as important as guarding the physical assets. Depending on your job, even the smartphone will have CAC assess, typically through encrypted bluetooth. Bases have secure phones too. Troll through the L-3 website.

These damn RFID badges know when you leave the building. It is like big brother.

While voice recognition (technically speaker recognition) and iris scan sound sexy, the CAC and a passcode is your typical two factor identification. The assumption is a bad guy won't have both forms of identification.

It just ruins your day when the bad guy cuts off your thumb to feeds it to the scanner. ;-) Actually, those are common on computers these days too, but the good thumb print readers have a temperature sensor in them to insure the thumb is from a live person.

The woman who runs Sandia security put out a book on how they do it.
www.amazon.com...
I was in Fry's Electronics one day, saw the old rev on the bargain shelf for a buck, saw the new rev was $99, and figured the old rev is a better deal. Nearly everything in the book I had read elsewhere over the years. The one thing I never heard of was barometric alarms. For critical infrastructure, they sense the atmospheric pressure in the room and detect changes. It is hard to open a door and not change the pressure.

Real life is never as sexy as in the movies.