How do you harness the power of collaboration when you need it most to protect and defend against threats? You build a fusion center. The concept evolved some 20 years ago in response to countering terrorism post 9/11, and a number of centres were built per the DOJ and DHS. But a few years ago, the concept became the new shiny for banks, a way to keep up with evolving threats and cybercrime. Alas, all that glitters is not gold. Effective fusion centres are powered by trust-enabled collaboration between people. At the end of the day, however, all those flashy lights, big monitors and dazzling graphs don't mean anything without the skilled people who know how to analyze and act on the real information. This talk is a cautionary tale of what's good and bad about fusion centres, with comparisons drawn from my experiences of working in one that really wasn't working well and why we must value our people over our technology.