Hollywood Breakdown – Covert Operations #2
Let’s take another fun look at Hollywood depictions of surveillance, surveillance detection, and covert operations.… Read More Hollywood Breakdown – Covert Operations #2
Category: Observation skills
Surveillance, Surveillance Detection & Countersurveillance
How do you find out if the field intelligence portrayed in espionage novels or spy movies is realistic?To find the answer, you need to look at what the characters are actually trying to achieve. That may sound obvious, but in my experience, as soon as words like surveillance, surveillance detection, and counter-surveillance enter the conversation,… Read More Surveillance, Surveillance Detection & Countersurveillance
Hostile Activity Prevention
Our new Hostile Activity Prevention E-learning course is now live. This unique, three-hour course teaches actionable, time-tested methods of prevention, detection and disruption of hostile activity. Based on Israeli methodologies of terrorist activity prevention, adapted to fit most environments and risk levels, the training isn’t merely theoretical. It covers the actual methods we’ve been successfully… Read More Hostile Activity Prevention
False-Positive
“Intuition is always right in at least two important ways;It is always in response to something.it always has your best interest at heart”-Gavin De Becker. Quite a few years ago, I was working at a very prominent Jewish facility in the San Francisco Bay Area when I spotted a suspicious-looking man on the opposite side… Read More False-Positive
Applying Covert Field-craft in Your Daily Life
Many people might find it surprising but much of the field-craft that goes into such things as surveillance detection and special protective operations—even some of the sexier stuff—can be applied in your own life as well. For example, the three-part article series about Circles of Security (part 1, part 2, part 3) I wrote a… Read More Applying Covert Field-craft in Your Daily Life
Inductive Observation – Watching & Understanding People
The following article is taken from Chapter 3 of my book Surveillance Zone. The book gives you an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into the mysterious world of private-sector espionage, surveillance detection and covert protective operations. Back when I was living in Tokyo, I met a fellow Israeli named Danny who became my closest friend during my years in… Read More Inductive Observation – Watching & Understanding People
Red Team
A Red Team is a non-hostile group or individual that challenges a system or an organization by simulating a potential adversary. This is done in order to uncover security vulnerabilities that are often not apparent to organizational insiders. The term comes from the cold war practice of US forces taking a Soviet, i.e. “red”, perspective.… Read More Red Team
Left of Bang
For a little while now, I’ve been looking for a good way to give a ringing endorsement to Left of Bang. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this book, it provides guidelines and instructions on how to look at individuals and environments in order to detect early warning signs and indicators of impending… Read More Left of Bang
So You Want To Be a Covert Operator
What follows is Chapter 12 of my new book Surveillance Zone. The book gives you an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into the mysterious world of private-sector espionage, surveillance detection and covert protective operations. By this point in the book, some of you are bound to start asking how you, too, can get in on the action and become… Read More So You Want To Be a Covert Operator
Ami Toben On SOFREP Radio
I had a great time on SOFREP Radio recently. For those of you who haven’t heard of SOFREP, check it out. These guys do lots of good and provide great content, insights and commentary. It was a true honor to be invited on.
