The hotel is not on fire

 

Image from Pixabay

BEEP – BEEP – BEEP. Capital letters can hardly convey the loudness of the alarm that went off as we sat eating breakfast in a hotel in Paris, our last stop on the way home. Capital letters are also too small to convey my surprise at what happened next.

That was, at first, nothing at all. People calmly continued nibbling on their croissants or sipping their coffee. I watched that for about three seconds, fascinated. Yes, I know that resignation in the office when the evacuation alarm goes off, but in a hotel I would have expected a bit more panic, or at least shocked looks; we all know the stories of burned-down hotels and their victims.

I urged my company to leave the hotel. Then, I first had to stop two family members from neatly clearing the table. Apparently, there is no button that switches from 'normal' to 'emergency' and ensures that your routine can be broken. But anyway, we could easily reach the exit of the breakfast room, simply because almost no one else wanted to do the same. While the noise of the alarm alone was enough reason to want to get out of there.

Now comes the part that I write with some shame. The way out led past the reception. From a distance the receptionist made it clear with broad arm gestures that we did not have to evacuate and that we could just continue with our breakfast. My shame lies in the fact that I turned around like a meek sheep, instead of asking how the receptionist was so sure that nothing was wrong. Of course it is possible that she knew what had triggered the alarm and that there was no reason to evacuate. The possible horror scenario was very different: there is a false alarm every now and then, so this time it will probably be nothing either. Just carry on.

That’s what they call cry wolf. If you keep shouting: "Watch out, a wolf!", while there's no such animal to be seen anywhere, then at some point people stop looking up. And if the fire alarm goes off several times a week for no apparent reason, then at some point the staff assumes that this time too, nothing is wrong. That can have fatal consequences. The funny thing is that everyone understands that - and does nothing about it.

Why did I go along with that? That is actually food for a psychologist and it is undoubtedly described extensively in hefty books, but if I may play the amateur psychologist for a moment: it must have something to do with power relations. That receptionist is a kind of an authority – she’s the face of the hotel, the one who tells you which room to sleep in and what time the breakfast room opens. And she stands behind a counter; that creates distance and underlines her authority. If someone like that says it's okay, then it is. But because of the possible horror scenario, I wish I had approached her and asked more questions.

That's how it works with computers, too. Warning messages are hardly read anyway - we know exactly where to find the click-away button. While there may well be a message among them that is more than worth reading, for example because it can make the difference between an organization that is paralyzed by ransomware and an organization that continues to work smoothly because you did take that message seriously.

Love must come from both sides here, too. If you are bombarded with all kinds of notifications, some of which are abracadabra to you, then I cannot expect you to respond appropriately in all cases. I often find less is more to be a hackneyed expression, but we might go a bit easy on those notifications, in order to give the really important ones the attention they deserve. And then I can expect you to take the time to read them and try to understand what you need to do.

Back to that hotel. At the office I know exactly the emergency exits are and I have actually used them before, but at this unknown location it did not occur to me to look for one. No, we headed for the main entrance of the hotel. But the normal route is not always the best route. It can even be a route into danger instead of away from it. I hereby promise myself to be alert to that next time. Are you in?

 

And in the big bad world…

• young people are, through their games, easy prey for criminals.
• the Russians are targeting us, again.
• the newly discovered Russian cyber unit blends its cyber efforts with physical activities.
• sextortion now comes with a photo of your house.
• it is difficult to get a grip on state spyware.
• Companies are sometimes attacked from within (more often than you think).
• there is a whole world of sentiment behind the arrest of the boss of Telegram.
• Telegram wants to improve moderation on the platform. [DUTCH]
• Dutch military is investing heavily in cyber. [DUTCH]
• security hardware can also be vulnerable. [DUTCH]