One constant through time is crisis, whether it be political, professional, or personal. While no one wants to experience a crisis, it is inevitable. That said, our responses are fully under our control. The examination of the history of crisis leaves us with many lessons learned based on the successes and failures of others.
There is a myriad of video surveillance solutions available to organizations seeking to protect their assets. Video management systems (VMS) have matured to a point where the collection of video and on-site storage is straight forward. Selecting and replaying video within a VMS is typically a standard feature with most offerings. Modern investigations, whether internal or external, increasingly require organizations to share digital evidence outside the VMS.
In a retail setting, a customer may become injured after a slip and fall. Was it a legitimate injury or a frivolous insurance claim? Archived video can typically reveal the true nature of the event. A Legal department may request the footage to share during court proceedings. Most corporate security departments or whoever is entrusted with managing the VMS must dedicate time and resources to extract the desired footage and place it on removable media such as a DVD or USB stick. This process is laborious, hard to monitor and slow. The process restarts any time there is a request for additional footage or a different video format to align with the end user’s technical requirements. It is common for large organisations to have dedicated personnel for the “DVD team”, sapping much needed resources from the security team.
Public sector agencies have a similar video management issue when conducting their own investigations. After a significant crime, law enforcement agencies are often required to send uniformed officers into the community to gather videos from nearby businesses, residences, or witnesses.
RCAS can provide consulting and implementation services for either of these operational scenarios. Systems such as Genetec Clearance address both sectors’ issues with a cloud-based service that makes sharing or collecting video in a time efficient manner feasible. All video is managed to an evidentiary standard should it be required in legal proceedings bolstered by a robust audit trail. Video format compatibility issues are no longer an issue as the system can provide the video in whatever format best suits the end user.
One of the greatest benefits of being part of ASIS is the amazing learning opportunities. As Chair of the ASIS Crisis Management and Business Continuity (CMBC) Community Steering Committee, I am fortunate enough to work with our Content Committee creating educational material. For the March podcast they knocked it out of the park again! I learned so much about AI and its potential impacts from everyone that participated.
The podcast delved into the potential risks and threats posed by the use of ChatGPT in various applications, and also discussed the ability of ChatGPT to generate human-like responses in order to be exploited by bad actors to deceive and manipulate individuals.
Andrew J Peden interviewed two experts in the field of AI, cybersecurity, and intelligence gathering, Tony J Ridley and Peter G. Warmka, to understand the current state of security measures and protocols in place to mitigate these risks.
One of the greatest benefits of being part of ASIS is the amazing learning opportunities. As Chair of the ASIS Crisis Management and Business Continuity (CMBC) Community Steering Committee, I am fortunate enough to work with our Content Committee creating educational material. For the March podcast they knocked it out of the park again! I learned so much about AI and its potential impacts from everyone that participated.
The podcast delved into the potential risks and threats posed by the use of ChatGPT in various applications, and also discussed the ability of ChatGPT to generate human-like responses in order to be exploited by bad actors to deceive and manipulate individuals.
Andrew J Peden interviewed two experts in the field of AI, cybersecurity, and intelligence gathering, Tony J Ridley and Peter G. Warmka, to understand the current state of security measures and protocols in place to mitigate these risks.
Security planning in operations must be an intelligence lead activity. Finding high quality reporting that you can trust is not always easy. Some organisations try and build their own intelligence production capability but this too can be quite difficult and costly.
Here at RCAS, our professional backgrounds in government spoiled us with very high quality intelligence collection and production. We toyed with the idea of building our own capability but quickly realized this was not going to be cost prohibitive. We decided to subscribe to a variety of paid services for day to day awareness yet this didn’t give us any bespoke capabilities.
Today, when we need specialized intelligence to support our operations, we rely on NSSG’s organic intelligence capability. Their team is stacked with exceptional intelligence professionals with amazing access to ground truth in a variety of regions. I invite you to sample their Jan 2023 Global Risk Outlook as well as xxxxxxxxx.
2023 will be marked by the increase need to understand how to balance risks and opportunities. Hence, NSSG’s Talks first edition tackled one such important topic while trying to understand how do leaders face crises?
On January 25th the Leaders vs Crises webinar James and I discussed crisis management with our trusted colleague Alessandro Martello MSyl the CEO of North Star Support Group (NSSG), a Romania-based risk management firm with offices in Egypt, Ukraine and US.
With 20+ years of experience in the security industry, Alessandro developed risk management systems in support of large-scale projects and organisations operating globally. As for his crisis management experience, he would like to recall the Ukraine unfolding events (starting with December 2021 throughout 2022), the 2016 Turkiye political and social crisis, the 2014 Suez Channel’s Enlargement Project (covering large areas within the Sinai Peninsula) and, last but not least, holding various crisis management roles during what we know as the “Arab Spring” moment back in 2011.
As previously posted, this January, I have taken on the role of Chair of the ASIS Crisis Management and Business Continuity (CMBC) Community Steering Committee. We are ASIS’ second largest Community and have committed to continuing to produce high quality and relevant content. Our CMBC Content Committee is kicking off a year-long series of informative, timely and vital podcasts to keep you on top of your game. Every two months a new podcast will be released showcasing various security professionals on topics we all need to know.
There is a running joke in my household that next year will be the “easy” year as there always seems to be so many things happening in our lives. Well, 8 days into January, I don’t think 2023 will be the easy or quiet year. Moving into our new house at the end of February, work is extremely busy with burgeoning projects in Europe and South America, all on top of few very busy contracts here in Canada. In my “spare” time, I have taken on the role of Chair for the ASIS Crisis Management & Business Continuity Community Steering Committee. I am blessed to have a wonderful cadre of industry professionals to support the Steering Committee and it’s initiatives such as an exciting schedule of educational content for 2023.
I was recently contacted by EP Wired to comment on what qualities we should expect in the best executive protection companies. EP Wired is an online magazine with a mission to bring together protectors, principals, EP program managers and future practitioners.
The best executive protection companies in 2023 are obviously supported by discrete and well-trained operators. These are obvious table stakes. However, they should also be transparent about who they use as EP operators, explain in detail their ongoing training, and be open to feedback.
The most significant indicator of an excellent EP company is its unwavering operational standards. Too often, companies are pressured by demanding clients to do more with less and will “bend,” thereby:
overtasking their operators and ultimately
risking the security of the principal.
The best companies will explain the necessity of adequate resources and maintain their baseline standards.
Always a pleasure to speak with the EP Wired team and support their mission by sharing information and experiences from past EP operations.
Enjoy, engage an EP professional to support your operations, and be safe!
/rob
I am current Vice Chair and 2023 incoming Chair for the ASIS Crisis Management and Business Continuity Community. One of the many pleasures in the role, is all the wonderful people I get to meet from around the world. Lucas de la Rosa, the ASIS Argentina Chapter President, and I were speaking about planning Executive Protection (EP) operations in high risk environments, and how it would be great to run a workshop together in Buenos Aires.
After many discussions and exceptional planning by Lucas, we were able to host a session on the 26th of September where many ASIS Argentina Chapter members were in attendance. We covered a variety of topics including intelligence preparation, trip profile, communications, methods transport, medical concerns and after action procedures. The workshop finished with 4 teams having only 30 minutes to prepare an operational brief for a realistic high risk scenario. All teams did exceptionally well with most having never worked EP before. I was very impressed!
