The Coat Check Analogy

So you’re going to go to a cool restaurant and you take your car and you drop it off at the valet parking. They give you a ticket and you take the ticket and put it in your coat pocket. Then you take your coat and put that in the closet because you’ve got your suit coat on and this is your outside coat and that’s cool.

Somebody watched you do that and they just walked in the closet and they take out your coat. They have your valet ticket. They wait a little bit and then they go claim your car. They are going to  get your car and your keys and they tipped the guy because they’re not jerks or anything and now they have your car.

But is that all they have? You came from work and you brought your briefcase that has your laptop.  (Does anyone carry a briefcase anymore?)

So they’ve got whatever business papers you had there.  They may have your wallet, they may have a spare credit card, they may have your address. They may have any of the security pieces that you’ve got there, any of the pieces of your identity, they pretty much got the whole thing.

This started by simply putting a piece of paper in your pocket and then hanging your coat up.

Think about that. Such a simple crime, such a simple risk. “Oh gee I got the wrong coat” in case they’re caught, could result in the loss of your information, not to mention your employers information.

Think about that in a cyber world.

Cyber security, take it seriously, the bad guys do.