Before Americans had organized police forces, they had private security guards. In New England towns, men were hired to patrol the streets at night. Now how would you think these guardians were viewed by the colonists?

According to Robert J. Fisher in his Introduction to Security

Such watchmen were ... without training, had no legal authority, were either volunteers or were paid a pittance, and were generally held in low regard - circumstances that bear a remarkable similarity to observations in the RAND report on private security in 1971.

Why is it that we so often undervalue those who commit to protecting our lives and property?

People react to financial stress in different ways. Some get creative. Some get criminal.

According to a recent article in the Chronicle Herald, workplace fraud is widespread in Canada and the soft economy will only make it worse. As employees feel increasing financial pressure - and possibly bitterness over missed promotions and raises - some may view workplace theft as the company's "cost of doing business."

Joyce McGeehan and Sarah Drysdale of Grant Thornton LLP offer these suggestions for curbing workplace fraud:

• Make sure employees understand management's expectation of ethical behavior
• Institute a real "open door policy"
• Start a whistleblowers hotline where individuals can report suspected fraud without fear
• Use due dilligence when researching new hires
• Immediately remove access rights to computer systems when employees are terminated
• Determine where your organization is most susceptible to fraud, and remember that customer information and other intangibles are targets as well goods and cash
• Don't assume that fraud controls are in place - conduct a walk through and test your policies and processes
• Revisit fraud controls after policy and personnel changes
• Provide written instructions to make sure that managers know what to look for
• Pay close attention to all bank account activity
• Keep a close eye on expense reports and insist on original receipts

I have some great childhood memories of going to Mets games with my Dad. It was such an uncomplicated outing; drive to Queens, park at Shea, and wait for a nice young man to walk up to your car and offer you tickets. Such service.

I think I was 15 when it finally occurred to me that some people bought tickets in places other than the parking lot.

Now it seems that ticket scalpers may soon go the way of Shea Stadium (which, if you didn't know, was bulldozed last year). Ticketmaster has decided that the best way to drive scalpers out of business is to take away the tickets. Their new "paperless tickets" can only be redeemed at the actual venue, and only after the credit card used to purchase them is swiped. Attendants armed with hand held scanners will be able to print a "seat locater" for the credit card holder.

Critics of the plan worry about bottlenecks at the venues that may result in personal safety issues.

Ticketmaster will roll the new system out at the upcoming Miley Cyrus tour. An interesting choice when you consider that many of the concert-goers will be too young to have a credit card of their own. This, worries SubHub's Sean Pate, will force parents to accompany their children to concerts.

Hmm ... even it's way uncool to a young concertgoer, is that really a bad thing from a safety standpoint?

Challenging free security programs such as AVG and Avast!, Microsoft has released the beta version of Security Essentials. The free antivirus program will replace the fee-based Windows Live OneCare, which tanked. The program has launched to some generally positive reviews; many of the negative comments I've seen swirl around Microsoft's image and business practices, not the performance of the software.

Just a digression; I'm amused by the fact that so much of the world hates Microsoft and yet 99.99999% of all computers still run on Windows. If you really believe that Microsoft is the Evil Empire, maybe you should be running Free BSD.

The Security Essentials release is in beta testing, and Microsoft's cap of 75,000 downloads has already been reached. If you want to try Security Essentials, you'll probably have to wait until October.

By the way, Microsoft is thinking about anti-trust as well as antivirus with Security Essentials. The software will not be bundled with future releases of Windows, which should head off any lawsuits.

For more information on Security Essentials, take a look at the recent review in ComputerWorld as well as Microsoft's Security Essentials site.