This seems to be my weekend for product counterfeiting. I was in Tel Aviv last week on Dizengoff and picked up a couple of paperbacks at the “Book Junkie” bookstore for 5 sheqels/book (that’s about $1.25!) – one of them was Michael Crichtons’ novel Airframe (The book is genuine… and they have an amazing collection of really cheap paperbacks.)
I won’t give away the plot – (you can read the outline on Wikipedia) but it’s a good read and it underscores a point that is extremely familiar to data security / data loss prevention practitioners – namely that human error and poor training and not sophisticated technology is usually the root cause of an event. Although a number of counterfeited parts were discovered in the wing slats, it was a person, not type-certified for the aircraft, that caused the death of 4 people.