"Take a newer [security staffer], or a younger one, to be that person," Scalzitti says. "Even if they don't contribute a lot, if they're in the meeting, those people say 'Oh, we have security here,' and they feel obliged to think about security. The person may not contribute a lot, but that's when a more experienced part of the [security] team tells them what to say next."

As it is, many organizations have struggled to integrate security as an element of quality in application development, alongside speed, failure resistance, scalability and the need to meet business requirements. Having a warm security body on hand can thus serve not only to educate the security newbie and keep him out of trouble, but also to get security's voice heard.

"These are useful roles, and mistakes generally don't impact business," Scalzitti says.

Deflating prima donnas

Security prima donnas are the opposite of security boobs, but they're still a pain to work with. These are the staffers who regard certain tasks as unworthy of their time, including reviewing logs or activity alerts, doing simple configuration reviews or meeting with other business groups.

In handling such divas, Scalzitti has had success putting them to work researching security incidents that appear in the media. The point, he says, is to get the security elite to discover that 80 percent of incidents are a result of simple attacks on low-hanging fruit.

"In information security, there are so many opportunities for an attacking hacker to pick a company," he says. "Unless they [have a grudge against a particular] company, they're going to go for low-hanging fruit. Having [prima donnas] research low-hanging fruit, it may take some time, but they come to realize the basics of how things happen."

The last resort

It's good to have tools to deal with security's bad apples, but one ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Many organizations have a 90-day probation period policy for new hires. Once past the 90 days, most states make it difficult to dismiss an employee without jumping through hoops to establish cause. The lesson: Watch new security employees like a hawk during their first 90 days in order to avoid getting stuck with security flunkees.