Q9 Networks Article

Tamara et al...

It is nice to see the front pages of the Business Section of the Calgary Herald are now the spin section for business in Calgary, and not real business news based in good journalism fundamentals.

Your article about Q 9 is a case in point.

The entire spiel on their security was more hyperbole, than reality.

Their high handed precautions start with security guards that are paid $9 an hour, and are not given much in the way of a security clearance, beyond checking their police records. For which the security guard pays.

None of them have a background check to see where they have worked before, who they have worked for, or their education background.

The fingerprint thing, is not used for anything other than allowing a person in to the guarded enclave, through an air lock. It is not to check on their security background, nor whether they should or can be allowed into the server area.

Yes, the windows are bullet proof, and the walls are reinforced, but nothing more than was put into the building when it was built.

You are not on the camera 100% of the time, and the cameras cannot follow your every move. Combined with the fact that the people watching you on the television screens can only watch a few cameras at anyone time, nor see you from 360 degrees, nor have knowledge of what you are doing and what you should be doing with the equipment you have?

I have personal knowledge of how personal information and hardware can be taken off the premises of Q9 and no one would ever be the wiser. The weighing thing? It is bogus. If you arrive with a computer hard drive, and leave with a computer hard drive, how can the event of weighing you detect that you have just left the premise with a companies complete data?

The government issued I.D., is not checked by the security guards, or even by the security company providing the guards. Yes, it is looked at, and yes if it looks good, it accepted. There is nothing done to verify the person with the driver's license if the person who is holding it. Simply signing out an access card is not much of a security system.

I can take you down to the Cecil Hotel, or Town and Country Hotel, or Bowness Hotel, and have all of the government identification you want that will show that you are Mae West. That does not take into count the rest of the world.

Yes, the Q9 system is secure, but it is in no way as secure from an attack or breach as the spin department of Arafat's Q9 public relations department would have you believe.

They are just living up to the level of security they can get away with and is being used by their competition, and make a good profit. EDS is one, that applies the same kind of security system, and uses the same methods, while competing for some of the same clients.