Archives: June, 2007

Here’s an interesting approach to creating a broad community of security practitioners: The CSO Executive Council is creating an on-line “security scorecard” that gathers data from security officials by asking them to complete online surveys on security issues and concerns. The answers are building a database that will be available to all the respondents, not […]

Two recent developments – both involving ASIS International – have enhanced a trend toward developing “best practices” standards for the security profession. – On May 21, ASIS announced that its Commission on Guidelines has been renamed the Commission on Standards and Guidelines. Adding “standards” reflects ASIS’ intent to “actively contribute to the process of developing […]

Amotz Brandes, a former Israeli soldier now directing a security consulting firm, speaks of the continuing importance of the human element in an era of high security technology. “The advances we’re seeing in detection technologies are impressive, and it’s an area where people are trying to fully automate the process,” Brandes, director and managing partner […]

Some settings – perhaps an angled approach – don’t require full-out K12 resilience to stop an oncoming hostile vehicle. Or possibly there may not be two feet of roadway depth at a given location to allow installation of PRO Barrier Engineering’s Arrestor barrier. For such settings, PRO Barrier has introduced the LightFoot, a lighter version […]

Bruce Schneier writes at length in his latest CRYPTO-GRAM blog about how rare acts of terrorism are – regardless of how much effort has been made to prevent them. Yet, because of fear, overraction to such events, when they occasionally do occur, becomes likely. “Novelty plus dread equals overreaction” is the manner in which Schneier […]

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who served as the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security, gave some candid advice to Philadelphia area business people recently. “You should always be thinking about risk and business continuity,” Ridge told the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. “An intelligent company is a resilient company ready to take a hit […]

Another database on incidents of terrorism globally has been opened online, this one by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the University of Maryland. Starting in late May, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at UMd. began offering a data base of almost 80,000 terrorist incidents for […]