There’s been much ado and tisk-tisking about the Salahis’ –now infamous White House gate crashers. Most people seem to assume that the Secret Service royally messed up and of course that’s perhaps true. But the reality is many of those same people who are aghast at that breach couldn’t defend their own security systems.

If you’re in corporate America, you’re probably used to key cards, sign-in sheets and the like but how safe are these systems? Do you test for leaks?

I can’t tell you how many times I –as a consultant working for some company–have forgotten my visitor’s pass and “tailgated” behind someone else to get back in the building after lunch.

I’m also amazed at how easy it is for me to just scratch my name (totally illegible), say I’m going to see a particular person and then just disappear. What good are all those sign-in sheets anyway?

As I wrote in Stop Pissing Me Off! What to do when the People you Work With Drive you Crazy, workplace violence is on the rise, especially in this age of downsizing when laid off workers may come back to extract revenge. You may not be protecting Obama, but your people are still valuable and the threat level is still high. Maybe not orange, but high.

What should you be doing? Test for security breaches regularly. Have some outsider see if they can get past your front desk, security or whatever. Make sure that your people are trained in what to do should an emergency occur. And for heaven sakes, don’t believe someone who says their name should be on the list.