Ambulance economics
You’ve probably heard that the NSW Ambulance service had to shut down it’s dispatch systems because of a virus outbreak on Sunday. Yahoo carried the story here if you missed it. What I find of interest is the state government says it will launch an inquiry into the “glitch”.
A quick google of “cost of inquiries” doesn’t reveal much unfortunately. I would be very interested to know the scope and cost of this kind of inquiry and where the budget to pay for it comes from. In the world of security it’s a constant battle to focus budget to places that make a material impact on real security. We’ve beset with security theatre on every side and the cries of “somebody plse think of the children” from well meaning idiots. Every one has an opinion, doubly so when it’s someone else’s money.
One of big problems with managing real security is the opportunity loss this creates. That’s simply a way of saying if you spend the money on option ‘A’ then you lose the opportunity to spend it on option ‘B’. I don’t know what the budget situation is at NSW Ambulance, but I feel sorry for the IT Manager over there. If he’s anything close to the average his budget for security hasn’t increased or kept up with the changing demands of the organisation for years. Money is hard to come by and management won’t understand the security issues very well. But — as soon as a politician looks bad - well - suddenly there’s money enough to pay for an inquiry.
Must be great for whoever gets paid to write inquiry reports.
Having spent the money on report writers there will be that much less left to do something useful to improve real security.
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