Threat: Drafting, Piggybacking, Tailing, Tailgating

Huh?

These are all words for the same thing: a person gaining access to a locked location by simply following in someone that has the proper access.

• This person waits near a door for a person to come by and open it. They then just grab the door ("after you") and walk in after you.
• Or they may be a bit more subtle and make no move toward it until you are well through. They grab the door just before it closes and walk in.
• This is especially effective if they are not near the door at all but just walking behind you a ways back. Common courtesy in the old sense would have us hold the door for people behind us. Even if it is a secure door that we had to unlock to open. We typically don't even think about it if someone is coming in after us.

Remember Ben Franklin said, "Distrust and caution are the parents of security."

Best Case Scenario

The person has every right to be there, has their badge and just goes on with the business of the day.

Worst Case Scenario

The blonde, bouncy, early-twenty-something girl that smiles and wrinkles her nose at you in thanks is an international terrorist. She is bent on stealing chemicals and biological components that are to be used to create a biological weapon. Her backpack contains 20 pounds of Semtex, with which she intends to destroy a major part of the building so as to cover the theft.

She completes the theft and the placement of her backpack next to the central support column for that part of the building. Smiling demurely to all she passes, she calmly leaves the building, drives out to Newport on the Levee and is just sitting down to a nice dish of Pasta Fra Diavolo at Brio when everyone in the restaurant feels a slight rumble and hears what sounds almost like thunder in the distance...

She smiles, finishes her meal, gets up and makes her leisurely way back to her lair to make a celebratory batch of Anthrax.

Countermeasures

This may be tough the first few times, but you get used to it quickly and people should understand. If they get contentious about it, get suspicious... fast.

In the modern world, we must be much more conscious of security. We have to overcome old habits. In some cases, we even have to do things that have been considered rude in the past. Closing a door behind us even if another person is coming, or asking to see a person's badge if they try to come in.

• If someone tries to come into a sensitive area right after you, look for a UC badge;
  ESPECIALLY if you see them just hanging around the door as you approach it.
• If you don't see a badge, politely ask if they are a member of UC and ask to see their badge.
• If they say they lost the badge, ask them their name (they may refuse to tell you) and where they want to go. (You want that information before you say this next bit because once you tell them you aren't going to let them in, they may refuse to talk to you anymore if they have no business being there.
• Tell them that University policy prohibits allowing access to anyone that does not have the appropriate ID. Ask them to go get their ID, or to contact security if they need one.
• If the person become belligerent and/or tries to force their way in or will not release the door so that you may close it after you, you will need to call security immediately.
• Before you walk away from them, remember the name they gave you (it may have been a lie if they are there inappropriately, but could easily be the truth as well), take a good look at them, noting their physical characteristics (sex, race, hair color, eye color, height, clothing)
• Contact security and give them this information along with what door they person tried to get through.