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In Washington’s corporate and governmental world, we’ve become experts at defending against external threats. We invest billions in biometric scans, security fences, and background checks to keep strangers at bay. Yet, Ferrer exploited the very blind spots of these defenses. She was the colleague who greeted you in the elevator, the reliable worker who stayed late, the trusted administrator who knew the rhythms of the office. It was this very familiarity and proximity that enabled her to siphon resources unnoticed. Institutional trust served as a cloak, allowing her actions to go undetected for years. Her case exposes a fundamental weakness in our societal security systems: we are so focused on preventing outside threats that we fail to notice the unraveling occurring within.
