security theater
nounEtymology Coined by American computer scientist Bruce Schneier in 2003.
1
Security measures which are intended to, or do, provide a feeling or illusion of improved security, while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.
- But some countermeasures provide the feeling of security instead of the reality. These are nothing more than security theater.2003 July 28, Bruce Schneier, Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World, Springer, page 38:
- I do care about security. I survived the attack on the World Trade Center and I believe 9/11 was allowed to occur through a failure of intelligence. I thank TSA agents for searching me: applause for security theater.2013 August 22, Jeff Jarvis, “As a Democrat, I am disgusted with President Obama”, in The Guardian:
1 more example
- [Bruce] Schneier agrees that Covid-19 has ushered in an era of hygiene theatre. “Like security theatre,” he says, “hygiene theatre comes from bad risk analysis – really, from ignorance.”2021 July 12, Sirin Kale, “Hygiene theatre: how excessive cleaning gives us a false sense of security”, in The Guardian: