As the shocking footage of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, being assassinated in Ankara makes the rounds, I find it important to remind people why case studies of this sort are so important. No, we don’t yet have all the details about this case, but when (or if) they’ll be made available, I… Read More Learning From Case Studies
Towards the end of every year, there’s a fantastic Close Protection Conference which is organized by the International Protective Security Board (IPSB). In the conference a couple of years ago, I was hugely honored to do a ‘Tac-Talk’ (think TED Talk, just for security professionals) about surveillance detection, and I thought it might be a good… Read More Let’s Talk About Surveillance Detection
The private security sector is often referred to as a solution-based industry. Clients with security concerns hire security professionals who provide security solutions. But a strange issue I often find is that many people (both in and out of the industry) don’t give enough thought to what the solutions are for. In other words, what… Read More Solving The Security Equation
I recently got a chance to talk with Alex Fox on The Capable Civilian podcast. Our conversation covered a whole range of topics, including (at the very end) an unofficial announcement about the book I’ve been working on, which I hope will be out in early 2017. Get my new book, Surveillance Zone now! Go… Read More The Capable Civilian Podcast
Probably the only thing Munich got right about real-world covert operations – the boring necessities of receipts and expense statements…
Circles of Security Circles of Security, as has been explained in a previous article, constitute one of the most important ideas in preventive security.This concept, which is most commonly applied to facilities and campuses, draws two general circles around the asset or property in question – the Inner Circle and the Outer Circle. The Inner… Read More The Inner & Outer Circle Relationship – Part 1: Access Control
One of the things that makes the security field so interesting is that it’s mostly about people. Security efforts (even if assisted by security systems) are usually directed at people, and largely executed by people for the protection of people. The most important assets are usually people, most of the highest risks we try to… Read More Inductive Observation
One of the ironies of employing a high-level, customer service oriented Outer Circle preventive strategy (discussed in a previous article), is that – for non-hostile individuals – it’s very difficult to understand how and why it works. The strategy does such a good job of preventing hostile attacks, and does it so subtly and unobtrusively,… Read More The Outer Circle – Perceptions and Misconceptions
In My last article, I explained why fundamental differences between facility security and executive protection should be reflected in surveillance detection training. In this article, I want to introduce a general strategy that can be specifically employed by facilities and campuses for detecting and mitigating hostile surveillance.
“Realistic” is a common word that often makes its way into the description of many security training courses. The presumption here is that the course in question will teach you about real-life problems and solutions, and will include exercises that mirror the reality of field operations. Surveillance Detection, being a relatively new field in the… Read More What Makes Training Realistic?
