Most security coverage these days surrounds the online world and the Middle East and, more recently, protection against natural disasters. Of course, such security concerns are well justified and necessary. Yet today people continue to just walk right in and steal from, set fire to, or worse, threaten to blow up manufacturing plants, warehouses and other industrial workplace infrastructures.

Let’s not forget the fact that domestic security in workplace infrastructure — manufacturing plants, warehouses and stores — remains vulnerable at best.

Take chemical plants, for instance. Simply put, chemical plants are part of our critical infrastructure, and with the potential for harmful releases of chemicals, many would say that these plants are extremely critical infrastructure. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some 120 American Chemistry Council (ACC) members have invested more than $2 billion upgrading security at their plants.

As we noted mid-last year, hundreds of new U.S. power plants are planned in the next few years, including coal-fired, gas-fired, a solar electric power plant in Nevada and others fueled by renewable resources. “Even nuclear has rejoined the conversation when it comes to power generation, although when and whether it ever translates into new power plants in the United States remains uncertain.”

However, it isn’t simply about power plant security against terrorism. Recently, there has been quite a bit of local news coverage of bomb threats and thefts of industrial warehouses and manufacturing plants and factories. Such risks remain a significant issue, and yet where is the conversation taking place? Or is it?

Earlier this month, several men attempted a heist at a Texas electronics warehouse, LG Electronics, locking a security guard into an empty trailer while trying to steal trailers loaded with plasma televisions and other electronics using trucks they had driven to the site.

This is the second theft or theft attempt at the electronics warehouse in a year and a half, according to Security Info Watch. In July 2005, a thief pretending to be a trucker made off with more than $80,000 worth of televisions and related equipment. Police said that because the imposter knew the cargo’s seven-digit code, the theft was not uncovered until a few hours later when the real trucker arrived to pick up the load.

On Jan. 15, deputies were dispatched to a reported arson and arrived to find a fire had been started in a wing of a building under construction, according to The Des Moines Register. County sheriff’s officials were called back the following night after a report of a truck engulfed in flames in the company’s parking lot. A field services commander with the sheriff’s office said it appeared the truck was set on fire, and the two fires are being treated as suspicious.

As well, police remain on the lookout for a man described as being “of Middle Eastern descent” who tried to gain access to a firearms manufacturing plant in Rutherford County, TN, last Thursday. A plant worker said the man had asked questions about the plant, wanting to know if he could buy metal from the company with the $15,000-20,000 in cash he had on him at the time, and began demanding access. The employee offered to give the man’s name to management, but he left in a white pick-up truck with two other occupants and a lot of luggage in the truck bed.

Barrett Firearms makes .50-caliber rifles for the U.S. military, which has used them in combat since the 1991 Gulf war. The powerful gun is also sold to the general public. Critics have warned that the rifle could be used by terrorists to bring down commercial airliners or penetrate rail cars and storage plants holding hazardous materials.

Moreover, a dozen times in less than a year thieves have shuttered the Chemetco industrial complex in Missouri. It was determined that the thieves were after valuable scrap metal, despite the presence of hazardous slag and sludge on the 40-acre site. Of course, this should come as little surprise. With scrap metal prices holding well above historic norms, especially for copper and aluminum, thieves seem ready to risk life and limb for the metals that were at one time not considered very precious. The spate of thefts — from copper downspouts off houses to cable at cell phone towers — has not only law enforcement on edge, but also the Illinois and Missouri legislatures “clamoring for answers,” according to Security Info Watch.

Oh, and just last week, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a bomb threat at a manufacturing plant in Roland, IA. This is the third time in little more than a week deputies had been called to Innovative Lighting’s business, as the incident Friday night came in the middle of an investigation into two suspicious fires set a week earlier.

Further, a Wal-Mart store in Mitchell, SD, received a bomb threat last month. The store managers decided not to evacuate while the police searched for the bomb. Presumably, they decided that the loss of revenue due to an evacuation was not worth the additional security of an evacuation:

During the nearly two-hour search Wal-Mart officials opted not to evacuated the busy discount store even though police recomended [Sic.] they do so. Wal-Mart officials said the call was a hoax and not a threat.

There is, of course, rational thought that should be put behind security trade-offs and thoughtlessly being terrorized.

It is important to remember that security trade-offs are based on agenda: From the perspective of the Wal-Mart managers, the store’s revenues are the most important; of course, the store employees have a different agenda — there is no upside to staying open and only a downside due to the additional risk — and they didn’t like the decision. The incident had family members of Wal-Mart employees criticizing store officials for failing to take police’s recommendation to evacuate.

Noted the Schneier on Security blog:

We make smart security trade-offs — and by this I mean trade-offs for genuine security — when our feeling of security closely matches the reality. When the two are out of alignment, we get security wrong.