Archives: March, 2009

Brian Kay, a global business risk consultant, urges consideration of business resilience “strategy maps” in doing business risk and crisis management planning. (Which everyone in business should be doing these days.) A risk strategy map “charts key risks to corporate objectives at the highest level, mitigating business resilience programs at the middle level, and specific […]

Talk about convergence; it was bound to happen, and has. An enterprising web developer has blended emergency preparedness techniques with social media tools and come up with a new website, the Homeland Security Response Network. It raises a key question: Where would you turn during a security emergency in the U.S.? We haven’t evaluated any […]

Here’s a revelation from Steve Hunt, a security consultant who is concerned when firms limit security concerns basically to their IT operations. Steve occasionally goes “dumpster diving” to make his point.  In this video, he reports on what a three-minute search through a dumpster at “a big bank in a big city” yielded. It’s astounding. […]

The elements of a comprehensive security program come into focus, unfortunately, if something goes wrong, or worse, an incident ends up in court. Better to do an assessment beforehand to keep that from happening. But what better to use than an outline that would hold up in a legal proceeding? The International Association of Professional Security […]

Why would a grocery story employee be fired for apprehending a shoplifter? It happened, and Bruce Schneier uses that 2007 incident and other examples to discuss the perverse incentives that sometimes frustrate security officers.

Here’s a helpful SecurityInfoWatch post on what small businesses can do to enhance their security in tough economic times. It’s by Joe Mac McConnell, ADT’s vice president of small business security. Shoplifting and other intrusive crimes on on the rise in hard times. Locks, lighting and unobstructed windows are where McConnell starts. His list goes […]

Security inspections (“risk assessments” is a fancier term) can demonstrate the value in developing and maintaining security awareness, George Campbell writes in Security Technology Executive. Here’s how they’re done: “The Chief Security Officer,” Campbell explains, “selected security team leaders on all shifts, and at a planning session they reviewed the existing data to target-specific concerns. […]

Here’s a good example of how security doesn’t end at the gate, or in the hiring of trustworthy employees. It involves internal processes and accountability – something, admittedly, that’s very challenging at a plutonium lab.  Even so, there’s been a lot of hand-wringing of late at the Energy Department over difficulties in accounting for plutonium […]

Pennsylvania has launched a toll-free emergency preparedness telephone line – 1-888-9-READYPA. By using the line, residents and businesses without ready access to preparedness centers can get information on preparing for emergencies. This is a good way to avoid overlooking details or materials that could prove helpful should an emergency occur – or just to get a sense […]

With the new federal stimulus package becoming law, aesthetic values are likely suddenly to jump to the forefront in many parts of the U.S. That’s because infrastructure projects funded by the package – roads and bridges, for instance – can raise the prospect of demolition of existing buildings or intrusion into neighborhoods. And existing stuctures […]