The terrorist attacks to two French chemical facilities in June and July 2015 raised the flag about the attractiveness of chemical plants to terrorist groups and the imminent risk of similar attacks in western countries. Although the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US put the security of chemical infrastructures in a spotlight, the majority of previous attempts have since been made toward threat assessment and vulnerability assessment of chemical plants yet overlooking their attractiveness as an influential parameter in security risks. The recent poaching of a rhino in a French zoo on March 6, 2017, despite all the security measures in place, can be taken as a metaphor to show the inefficacy of security countermeasures if not coupled with measures to reduce the attractiveness. The present work aims to emphasize the applicability of safety concepts such as inherently safer design and land use planning to this purpose. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 37: 150-152, 2018