Confidential blueprints for the widely controversial Freedom Tower which is set to be erected where the World Trade Center buildings once stood were found in a city garbage can by a homeless recovering drug addict. Usually when the words “homeless” and “recovering drug addict” are used together, it just means the guy doesn’t have enough cash to support his crack habit.

An article in the New York Post does the obvious and screams “OH MY GOD SOMEONE COULD USE THIS TO PLOT A TERRORIST ATTACK! FLEE! SCURRY! RUN AWAY!!”

A terrorist attack wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind when I read the article title, but leave it to the NYC press to try and induce fear in everyone.  I mean, I live in a small city in the Midwest, so this stuff isn’t right in my backyard, but honestly, I don’t need a

I’ve probably been hanging around Skyscraper City too much, but I’m far more interested in the plans themselves just to see how everything’s put together. While I don’t deny that there’s a potential threat here, It certainly isn’t the bowel-emptying fear that this article tries to make it out to be.

These schematics are available to quite a few people such as architects, contractors and PA officials. They’re also apparently quite a few revisions old.  I’m quite certain that someone with resources could get their grubby little paws on the plans if they really wanted to.

A highly overpaid “Security Expert” adds to the drama by stating “Any time a sensitive document is unintentionally left behind, it’s a treasure trove for a potential adversary.”

I should also point out that anyone with enough time, knowledge and money could wander through the building when it’s completed and gleam similar information.  Not to mention the thousand or so construction workers that will have far more accurate information about the building than a set of old plans.

Here’s the thing the press doesn’t seem to realize: Anyone with enough money, and enough resources can get their hands on any kind of information they want. The more people that have the information, the easier/cheaper it is to get. Security through obscurity has always been a horribly flawed approach with software, and it’s really no better with anything else.