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Just a thought, the site is security.stackexchange.com but the logo in the header of the page clearly says 'IT Security'.

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Since a broad spectrum of questions regarding physical and procedural security are accepted here, shouldn't that be changed to just "security"?

Besides, no one ever says 'ITSec.Se'

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    I once got confused on Stack Overflow careers when I was trying to include my IT security account. Almost all other sites were listed (in the drop-down menu) by the sub-domain name so I kept searching for security but could not find it. Later I came to know that it was listed as ITsecurity.
    – Shurmajee
    Jun 20, 2013 at 10:04
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    This came up several times in the past. The site is called “IT security” for historical reasons, even though it has been broader since the beta.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 20, 2013 at 16:51
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    Making the site moniker "Information (and more) Security.SE" (I(am) Sec.SE)) is not on the menu, right?
    – Deer Hunter
    Jun 30, 2013 at 10:25
  • @deerhunter awesome!!!!
    – NULLZ
    Jun 30, 2013 at 10:31

3 Answers 3

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I think it's a fundamental mistake to think that physical security isn't part of IT Security. If someone comes on asking how to protect a diamond collection, it's off topic, but how to physically secure an office building is a critical (arguably the most critical) part of protecting the information contained within.

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  • Agreed, there's the old saying "If you have physical access to a machine you own it". Simple as that really :)
    – NULLZ
    Jun 20, 2013 at 10:08
  • I'd vote to close for "too localized" actually, but I see your point ;)
    – Luc
    Jun 23, 2013 at 11:54
  • The FAQ says otherwise
    – Griffin Nowak
    Jun 25, 2013 at 7:23
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    @Griffin - not sure which of the comments that was in reference to.
    – AJ Henderson
    Jun 25, 2013 at 13:26
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We discussed this some time back in one of our scope creep chats. I think the conclusion was that it wasn't worth the effort.

I agree that it is currently slightly misleading but the core of our scope is still IT security so I don't think it is a problem.

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    For what it's worth, I think it's always worth the effort to rethink and improve what we have. Plus, the url doesn't state itsecurity.stackexchange.com, but security.stackexchange.com.
    – Aki
    Jun 26, 2013 at 8:58
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As Rory said, our discussion around this was going on during the same time frame as the site design and graduation. The results of those discussions have been largely captured in the FAQ, now found here:

IT Security Stack Exchange is for Information Security professionals to discuss protecting assets from threats and vulnerabilities. Topics include, but are not limited to:

web app hardening
network security
social engineering, including phishing
risk management
policies
penetration testing
security tools
using cryptography
incident response
physically securing the office, datacentre, information assets etc.

The last two topics are really the core of what you're asking. Incident Response being a largely soft topic, with technical aspects depending on the incident. Then the last is explicitly allowing physical security topics. We do have a number of them already, not nearly as many as some other topics, but as of right now we have 100 non-deleted questions in the tag.

The reason for the "IT Security" branding is exactly what Rory hinted at. By the time we had the discussion explicitly allowing physical security questions the site design had already gone through and either had gone live or was within a day or two of going live. We decided it probably wasn't worthwhile to lobby Jin for a new design removing the dreaded "T".

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    Very interesting, however the question was: 'shouldn't that be changed to just "security"?'. From what you say it should indeed be changed but it may be hard to convince someone to do it, right?
    – Aki
    Jun 26, 2013 at 15:41
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    @Aki: It's a bit of both. First we have to answer the question, "Is is appropriate to change?" then answer "Should we?" so I make sure to answer both. It's definitely appropriate, but may not actually be worthwhile.
    – Scott Pack
    Jun 26, 2013 at 16:22

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