What comes to people’s minds when they think of security? Is there a relationship between global security threats and local, everyday events that influence our feeling of security? Drawing from telephone interviews of 1'000 Swiss citizens, this work attempts to provide a missing link between the spheres of personal and public security. Based on empirical data and using quantitative statistical methods such as correspondence analysis and logistic regression, security is conceived through the statements of common citizens. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of the different notions of security in contemporary Switzerland.