OSC Guardian - Safety Advice

OSC GUARDIAN - SAFETY ADVICE
www.OramSecurity.com

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Happy vacation! Security at tourist spots.

Security isn't what travelers want to think about before heading to a vacation, but top tourist sites are working hard to keep visitors both secure and happy.

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor

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July 14, 2010CSO
While many people are getting ready for their summer vacations, security professionals at tourist attractions around the country are preparing to ramp up their efforts. A recent Harris May Poll finds 66 percent of Americans will take a summer vacation this year—good news for the country's $704 billion tourism industry, which relies heavily on summer travel each year.
The last thing travelers have on their mind during vacation is security, and the top tourist sites around the U.S. want it to stay that way. But that doesn't come without an intense amount of preparation and work by officials in charge of security at tourist sites, according to Bill Farrar, senior vice president, operations & business development with security firm Andrews International. From museums and monuments, to theme parks and movie studios, there are different and unique challenges to securing each type of site.
"There is a different culture in each place, and that also depends on the state and part of the country it's in, too," said Farrar. "Security needs to be geared for the needs of that site."
Farrar, who during his career has overseen executive protection and investigations, including stalking problems, to ensure the welfare of numerous entertainment and executive clients of Andrews International, gives us a rundown of the security needs at some of the popular destinations sites for summer vacation.
Movie studio (Examples: Universal Studio, Warner Brothers Studio, Paramount Studio)
The biggest security concern in a movie studio where the public is allowed to come on site for tours is keeping those people that are working there feeling comfortable, said Farrar.
"They need to feel that they are able to do their jobs without being bothered or threatened by the general population," he said. "Everyone thinks of terrorism when it comes to security, but it's as much as the obsessed fan or stalker that can be anywhere from a pest to being deadly. You are dealing with all levels of it."
The challenge is to keep security tight while also allowing for employees to work without feeling too hindered. That means access control that is both appropriate and secure.
"We try and make the person who is there working every day feel comfortable going to work and that they are not going to be bothered and are free to do what they need to do."
Landmark site or museum (Examples: Washington monument, Statue of Liberty, Smithsonian Museums)
Depending on the nature of the site, they can truly be a target for security incidents, said Farrar. Many landmarks and museums have now implemented magnetometers for visitors to pass through before entering the building. This can cause a mixed reaction among tourists.
Click here to find out more!
Click here to find out more!

"Some people are fine, ready to go through it. Other people don't want to be bothered and will walk through and try and create a confrontation so you will confront them; they're hoping for some kind of legal dispute. Some people figure if they walk on through and act like they belong they'll just be allowed to go through."
Farrar said it is important for security personnel at these types of places to be changed out to varying roles frequently so they can stay sharp in the face of some of these challenges.
"Someone who is standing at the door for eight or nine hours without relief is going to get lax and not do their job."
Farrar said the other important role security folks must play at landmarks and museums is customer service representative.
"You want things to be secure, but also to appear as friendly and unthreatening as possible. So, it's going up to visitors and saying 'Hi, how are you? Can I help you find something?' At the same time you want a bad guy when he walks up to it know you mean business here. Greeting them lets them know that they are being watched."
Public spaces (Examples: Time Square, the Las Vegas Strip)
Because areas that are public spaces are not officially controlled by any one person or organization, security in these areas requires a combined effort between citizens and police.
"When you have venues like Times Square, or other locations where people will go to and it would make an impression if something happens, the community must be educated and authorities need to be approachable," said Farrar. If police don t have a relationship with the community, the community won't know what to look for, and may also be afraid to talk to the police."
Farrar says many successful awareness campaigns around the country that encourage citizens to pay attention, notice strange things, and report them, have resulted in stopping a catastrophe. The recent Times Square bombing attempt is one example.
"The Time Square attempt was all citizens being aware of what was going on and they may not have known what to look for if they hadn t been educated about what to look for," he said. "You can't do a policeman's job or a security function without the cooperation of the citizens."
Theme parks (Examples: Disney World, Six Flags, Cedar Point)
Tourists may sometimes get a little nervous before stepping onto a roller coaster at a theme park, but concern over a security incident is usually not on their minds. But security is just as important at a theme park as at any popular tourist spot, because if anything happens, it can ruin business, said Farrar.
"Everybody is going to go for the soft target," he said. "You don't want to make it easier."
The challenge is, of course, making things fun and secure.
"You have to be able to actually ward off threats, but create an atmosphere where everyone is comfortable."
Farrar said in his experience, an effective technique is fastidious upkeep of the grounds that work in tandem with a tight security plan. Appearance is everything, he said. And well-kept areas tend to attract less crime.
"The nicer it looks, the better it looks, the better people act," he said.
Public/Private venue (Examples: Navy Pier in Chicago, Faneuil Hall in Boston)
Venues that are open to the public for shopping, dining and entertainment pose a unique security challenge in that they are also sometimes used for high profile events. In these instances, security crews have to balance the need for higher security during events, but also make the venue as open as possible for others so businesses in the facility will not be impacted. Farrar has worked on security for a number of events involving the entertainment industry.
"We can do an event venue where you have a street shut down and have a red carpet, but I still have the rest of the facility open for business."
Security for these types of events usually means extra police and security around the entire facility, not just the event. And security also needs to be on hand for arrivals in order to ensure secure access control.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

GAO Issues Report on Sexual Abuse of Kids in K-12 Schools

By Teresa Anderson
Schools across the country have hired people who have sexually exploited or targeted children in the past, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The GAO compared school employment databases from 19 states and Washington, D.C, in between 2007 and 2009 to the National Sex Offender Registry to find cases of sexual abuse that resulted in a criminal conviction.
In investigating known cases of sexual abuse by school employees, the GAO found that people with histories of sexual misconduct were hired or retained as teachers, support staff, volunteers, or contractors. In 11 of the 15 cases the GAO reviewed, the offenders previously targeted children. In six cases, the offenders used their positions in the schools to abuse more children, according to the report (.pdf).

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Attorney General Eric Holder: Threat of Homegrown Terrorism "Keeps Me Up At Night".

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke of the ongoing fight to protect American national security and expressed his growing concern with the threat of homegrown terror - a danger which he said  "keeps me up at night."
"What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," Holder told ABC's Pierre Thomas, in an interview that aired Tuesday morning.
"The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens -- raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born," Holder added.
The attorney general said that of 126 people who have been charged with allegations related to terrorism in the past 24 months, 50 had been American citizens.

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Oram Security

Millions still crossing Americas Borders without documents.

Millions of people are still crossing into America from land ports of entry without the necessary documentation. "The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security estimated this week that about 3.6 million people a year were still passing through customs without the required documents, and that about half of those were coming through the border crossings in Texas," reports The New York Times. "The audit noted that overall compliance with the law was relatively high; about 96 percent of travelers entering the country’s 39 land ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders now follow the new rules, presenting, for instance, a passport, a border-crossing card or a birth certificate."

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Google Searches Warn Against Hacked Web Sites

This looks like a great idea, I just hope people pay attention to it. 
Stay Safe
Oram Security
By Matthew Harwood
In an effort to help its customers avoid compromised Web sites, Google has added a new  tool to its search engine that notifies users when it has detected suspicious activity on a Web site, the company revealed last Friday.

When Web surfers use Google to search for something, a "This site may be compromised” warning will appear underneath the search result if Google detects anything suspicious. If users click on the "This site may be compromised" link, they will be transported to Google's Help Center and receive this explanation.
If a site has been hacked, it typically means that a third party has taken control of the site without the owner’s permission. Hackers may change the content of a page, add new links on a page, or add new pages to the site. The intent can include phishing (tricking users into sharing personal and credit card information) or spamming (violating search engine quality guidelines to rank pages more highly than they should rank).
Search-engine users, however, will still have the ability to ignore the warning, click on the search result, and get transported to the Web site.
But with every security measure, there are people who could be adversely affected. In this case, they are Web masters whose sites have been compromised by a hacker.
"Rest assured, once the problem has been fixed, the warning label will be automatically removed from our search results, usually in a matter of days," explains Gideon Wald, an associate product manager at Google. "You can also request a review of your site to accelerate removal of the notice."
Google's new warning is one more additional security layer for its customers. The company already warns its search-engine users that "This site may harm your computer" when it detects a Web site hosting malware.
According to Google's Help Center, "In both cases, our detection might not be perfect -- we continually work on improving our system -- but it would be wise to proceed with caution."

Monday, December 20, 2010

Mexican Drone Crashes in El Paso, Texas, Backyard Near the Border

This is something that I believe needs to be explained.  If the roles were reversed, you would have activist groups within the United States as well as the Mexican Federal Government clamoring for an explanation as to why we crossed international boarders of a sovereign nation.
Stay Safe,
Oram Security 

By Matthew Harwood
The residents of Craddock Avenue in El Paso, Texas, got a surprise early Tuesday evening when a Mexican drone crashed into the backyard of one of their neighbors near the border with Mexico.
The El Paso Times tries to make sense of the wreckage:
[National Transportation Safety Board Spokesman] Keith Holloway said the aircraft that crossed into U.S. airspace is a mini orbiter unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the Aeronautics Defense System.
According to the developer's website, the aircraft is designed for use in military and Homeland Security missions. It can be used for reconnaissance missions, low-intensity conflicts and urban warfare.
Officials at the Mexican consul's office in El Paso did not call back to provide details about what kind of operation the drone was a part of, how long drones have been in use or which government agency controlled it.
"We are collecting data about the crash. We don't have the aircraft because it was returned to its owner," said Keith Holloway, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told the Times. The NTSB investigates aviation crashes inside the United States.
(For more on how El Paso handles its violent neighbor, see December's cover story, "Bordering on Danger," by Associate Editor Matthew Harwood.)
The drone known as the Orbiter Mini UAV System is manufactured by the Israeli company Aeronautics Defense Systems, which also is listed as Aeronautics ltd on its Web site. According to the specs listed on its Web site, the Orbiter can fly as high as 18,000 feet at speeds of 70 knots for three to four hours per flight.
Officials at Mexico's consul office in El Paso did not return calls from the Times seeking comment. Federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the office of Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), El Paso's congressional representative, also disclosed little information of the crash.
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Press Officer Roger Maier told TPMMuckraker in an e-mail, "CBP/U.S. Border Patrol responded to a concerned citizen's call and recovered a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle... which belonged to the Government of Mexico (GOM). We worked collaboratively with the GOM and other U.S. federal agencies to coordinate the return of the UAV to GOM."
The Times also reports that www.defenseindustrydaily.com had earlier reported that Aeronautics Defense Systems in 2009 planned on selling Mexico's federal police $22 million worth of its Skystar 300 surveillance aerostats and small Orbiter UAVs to help the government fight the country's notorious cartels that many analysts consider a narcoinsurgency.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Security breaches at three firms expose vulnerability of customer information

McDonald's, Walgreen and Gawker Media were hit by hackers in recent days. Some experts warn against using 'dumb' passwords.

December 13, 2010
Customer information collected by three companies, including McDonald's Corp. and Walgreen Co., has been compromised in recent days.

The incidents highlight the vulnerability of that information, especially when consumers, overwhelmed with the number of online log-ins they need, use "dumb" passwords for their accounts, experts say.

Recent breaches contained such information as names and e-mail addresses. They did not involve crucial personal information, such as Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers, the companies said. In the Walgreen case, medical prescription information was not stolen, the company said.

McDonald's on Monday notified some customers that information they provided on the fast-food company's website or in promotions "was improperly accessed by an unauthorized third party." Information might have included the customer's name, mobile phone number, postal address and e-mail address. McDonald's said it had hired the marketing services firm Arc Worldwide to coordinate its e-mail promotions. Arc then hired another company to manage the e-mail list. It was that company, which Arc and McDonald's would not name, that suffered the breach.

Gawker Media, operator of numerous websites, said its registered users' user names and passwords were hacked over the weekend. Though passwords were encrypted, they're still vulnerable and should be changed, the company said. The danger comes if people used the same log-ins for a Gawker site as they do for their other accounts, including financial accounts. Gawker operates the websites Gawker, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Deadspin, Io9 and Fleshbot. The Gawker breach led to spam postings using some victims' Twitter accounts.

Walgreen on Friday said customers subscribing to the drugstore chain's e-mail distribution list should be on the lookout for spam directing them to another site and then asking for personal data. That was because of an "unauthorized access" to its e-mail list. Only e-mail addresses were compromised — no names, a Walgreen spokesman said Monday, declining to provide further details of the breach.

"The McDonald's, Walgreens, and Gawker incidents should be a wake-up call for everyone," said Rob Fitzgerald, president of Lorenzi Group, a digital forensics company.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, a network security and compliance auditing firm, said data breaches were on the rise. "Unfortunately, consumers don't pay much attention to breach disclosures — even for large brands — because there are so many of them," he said.

In fact, 63% of organizations reported experiencing at least one security incident or breach during the last 12 months, according to the Global Information Security Trends study by the Computing Technology Industry Assn., a nonprofit trade group.

"More troubling is the feeling that the severity level of breaches has increased over the last several years," said Steven Ostrowski, spokesman for the association. "Attacks that in the past may have been done for sport or notoriety are now being done more frequently with criminal intent or financial gain in mind."

For consumers, one danger of stolen names and e-mail addresses is "phishing." Thieves can create and send e-mails that look like they are from legitimate businesses, such as a bank, and contain your name, trying to trick you into divulging more personal information, which can be used for more serious frauds.

Ultimately, the biggest problem is that people are too trusting and offer too much personal information, said Mike Meikle, chief executive of Hawkthorne Group, a security consulting firm. "The weakest link is the person using the device or piece of software," he said. "It's just about having a healthy skepticism. It's kind of a sad situation, but you have to kind of give everyone the eye. It's just the way it is."

And so many people use the same or similar user names and passwords for all their accounts that they're easy to hack, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for information security firm Sophos and operator of the Naked Security blog.

"People choose dumb passwords, like 'password' or 'letmein' or the brand of monitor they're looking at," Cluley said. Instead, they should use a random password for each site, rather than words in the dictionary that are easily hacked. Because it's unwieldy to manage those, consumers should use password storage software. There are many examples, but free programs include LastPass and KeePass, he said.

Monday, December 13, 2010

From OODA to AAADA - A cycle for surviving violent police encounters

Although this article was written from the mindset of Law Enforcement, there is much that the Security Professional as well as the civilian can learn from it.  

Stay Safe
Oram Security
By Michael J. Asken, Ph.D.
Dr. Mike Asken is a State Police psychologist and author of “MindSighting: Mental Toughness Skills for Police Officers in High Stress Situations.” His Web site is www.mindsighting.com
Mike has written an interesting article for the National Tactical Officers Association official publication The Tactical Edge where he brings up some great points and questions regarding the Boyd Cycle that every cop should understand. He also developed another decision making model he titled AAADA Loop (Anticipating, Alerting, Assessing, Deciding and Acting) which prompted some questions in my mind.
  1. Why change or do we need to change OODA to AAADA when the foundation on learning, situational awareness and decision making under pressure is already proven in high stress situations?
  2. Is the AAADA model easier for cops to understand?
  3. Does the new model AAADA cover anything new, not discussed in Boyd's work?
  4. Can oversimplifying OODA cause us to neglect other key components of Boyd’s work? If so how do we ensure the street cop is getting this valuable information? More policy and procedure??? Or more bottoms up, high standards of training that allows the street cop to use insight and innovation in problem solving with initiative?
  5. Should we cops seek to learn more about the theories and concepts that could make us more effective on the street? Does understanding theory at a deeper level help us more effectively apply what we know to a given set of circumstances? If this is so and I believe it is, how do we adapt our training and leadership methodologies to ensure this type of learning takes place and is applied to the street?
  6. What is leaderships role in this evolutionary process?
I emailed Mike my questions and he graciously responded he wanted to, stimulate some thought and discussion, emphasize some of the aspects and expand the model a bit , which while making it a little bulkier, I thought was still simpler than wading through the Colonels often complicated concepts and treatise.  
Despite my questions, which only help to improve my understanding, I feel the article is outstanding and the message Mike is conveying is one that will enhance the learning that needs to take place. Learning that could help better prepare you for violent encounters and give you the upper hand.
Stay Oriented!
Fred
From OODA to AADA_A cycle for surviving violent police encounters
clip_image002Many police officers are very familiar with the OODA Loop (Figure 1), first described by Air Force Colonel John Boyd. The four phases of the Loop—observe, orient, decide and act — were said to represent a consistent similarity in how warriors respond cognitively and behaviorally in high-stress challenge situations. Boyd’s invaluable model has been widely applied from the battleground to the boardroom, and has also been influential in understanding the response of police officers in threat situations.

Many aspects of the model remain highly relevant for contemporary police incidents, including sudden violent encounters and critical incident management. However, continuing experience and expanding research suggest that it may be timely to re-evaluate the nature of the model and consider some adaptations for policing.
Of continuing relevance and importance is the concept of the “loop,” or the cyclical nature of an officer's actions in a threat situation. Boyd’s model of the OODA Loop was actually much more complex than the four cornerstones of observe, orient, decide and act. Each phase had additional aspects that determined the speed and quality of movement through the cycle. For example, observation was comprised of factors such as outside information, unfolding circumstances and unfolding environmental interaction. Orientation was governed by factors such as cultural traditions, previous experience and new information. In Boyd’s words (1995), the entire “loop …is an ongoing many-sided implicit cross-referencing process.”
Of particular growing importance today, however, is understanding that maximal response, survival and victory in sudden violent encounters may require one or both of two circumstances. First is efficient movement through the loop on the part of the police officer. The other is slowing and/or disrupting the subject’s cycle.
As stated by Boyd (1997): “(The) idea of fast transients suggests that in order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries — or, better yet, get inside adversary’s observation-orientation-decision-action time cycle or loop.” For example, surprise, speed and diversion, when demonstrated by the police officer, can be used to make the loop unstable or unpredictable for an adversary. Of course the caution is that the opposite can be true, as well.
Further, it must be recognized, as described by human factors expert Moin Rahman (2007), that uncontrolled stress (such as that created by surprise, speed or diversion) can disrupt processing through the loop by slowing or even freezing it, or speeding it up to such a velocity that observation, orientation or decision-making become sloppy or superficial, leading to faulty action.
The goal is always to achieve relative superiority over the adversary by dominating the loop. This is partially accomplished by dictating the tempo of the encounter and keeping the adversary in a reactionary mode—acquiring and maintaining the initiative. During tactical operations or even during short-term encounters, the reactionary loop goes through numerous cycles which need to be effectively managed by both the commander and the lone officer. This is a major reason that mental toughness skills and training are essential for mastering tactical stress (Asken 2005).
AAADA Loopclip_image002[5]
What needs to be reconsidered is the content and nature of the phases of the Loop as they relate to critical police encounters. . Soltys (2008) suggested that OODA should be SOODA, where S represents Situational Awareness. Even more descriptive and functional may be an AAADA Loop (Figure 2) comprised of a cycle of anticipating, alerting, assessing, deciding and acting.
It is proposed that alerting is a better term and concept than observing and orienting for several reasons. First, observation can imply a focus on solely visual responses. Alertness, however, can be triggered by any sensory input, not just vision. Certainly sound can create a state of alert, as may “the feel” of someone or something nearby. Almost every police officer will testify to the importance of intuition or the “sixth sense” in being safe and successful on the job. Intuition and especially unconscious awareness is a complex and somewhat controversial topic, but even if intuition is nothing more than non-articulated (though still critical) sensory perception and thought (which can often be described and articulated after the fact), it leads directly to alertness and is more than what is implied simply by the term observation.
Alertness also implies an important quality of intensity of readiness and involvement. Observation can be slow, lengthy or incomplete but alertness or alerting implies, at least, an enhanced degree of readiness.
Alerting also conveys a state of ongoing readiness. Police officers need to guard against the idea that “acting” is the final phase in the loop. Effective and victorious responses require at least one additional cycle through the stages to assure that a situation is secure. There is a natural tendency, one that is both physical and psychological in nature, to relax after intense action and apparent success. However, as implied by Napoleon’s statement that the “moment of greatest vulnerability is the instant immediately after victory,” the actual success and degree of security in an encounter needs to be assessed by repeating the loop after the first action cycle. The term alerting conveys the need to maintain an adequate level of attention and readiness to complete this review. Finally, alerting requires and subsumes orientation (to the event) which allows for the next step of assessing.
The use of the term decide as Boyd’s third step in the cycle is a bit deceiving and nondescript when considering the nature of certain forms of police decision-making. Officers must make split-second decisions which may be complex and have potentially dire consequences, and as per Graham v. Conner, all under tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances. Further, the term seems to skip an essential component of successful decision and action phases, which is first assessing the situation. Decisions without adequate assessment may well lead to faulty and tragic action. This is especially essential for police officers where the nature of and rules of engagement with their civilian constituents are quite different from those of combat. Assessing implies a subsequent decision that has been based on the results of effective assessment.
Assessing is then followed by a decision and the related action.
A final consideration is that the way OODA is often used suggests that the cycle commences after attention (or alertness) is stimulated by some action, event or cue leading to observation. However, an experienced and highly trained police officer or operator actually begins the cycle prior to the AADA or OODA phases by anticipating the potential for an encounter. This was recognized by Sun Tzu, who stated that “Victorious warriors win first; then go to war. Defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” Thus, while we discuss anticipating last in this article for emphasis, it should actually precede and thread through any and all police actions.
The usual skill representation of anticipation has been called Reflection in Action (Schein 2004) or Tactical Performance Imagery (Asken 2005), in which the officer or commander forms a mental framework of potential or actual situations and circumstances through anticipation. This evolves from training, past experience and situational awareness—the total understanding of the circumstances that exist at that time.
With this, the officer then rapidly develops an understanding of the potential future or futures about to unfold. But the process doesn’t stop there. The best officers, while fully anticipating the situation and potential events about to unfold, begin to imagine or mentally rehearse actions for those events. As a result, the officer is prepared to alert, assess, decide and act before the event occurs, reducing reaction time and enabling efficient and maximal cycles through the Loop. With time and repeated use, the cycle becomes second nature, and may provide lifesaving advantages to our homeland warriors.
References
Asken, M.. MindSighting: Mental Toughness Skills for Police Officers in High Stress Situations. (2005) www.mindsighting.com.
Boyd, J. “A discourse on winning and losing.” Colonel Chet Richardson, USAF (Ret.), Ph.D. (1997). www.ausairpower.net/AAP-Boyd-Papers.html.
Boyd, J. “The essence of winning and losing.” Colonel Chet Richardson, USAF (Ret.), Ph.D (1995) www.ausairpower.net/AAP-Boyd-Papers.html.
Raham, M. “A discourse on law enforcement and psychobehaviors: Informing design displays from displays in ethology to high velocity human factors.” (2007).
http://compass.mot.com/gp/lawenforcement.
Schein, E.Organizational Culture and Leadership, NY: Jossey-Bass, 2004.
Soltys (2008). Training for the Close Quarters Encounter. In B. Willis (ed.). W.I.N:
Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors. Calgary: Warrior Spirit Books.
About the author
Dr. Mike Asken is a State Police psychologist and author of “MindSighting: Mental Toughness Skills for Police Officers in High Stress Situations.” His Web site is www.mindsighting.com 
Significant contributions were made to this article by Lt. William Young. Lt. Young is the West SERT team commander for the Pennsylvania State Police.

CAN CONNECTICUT EMPLOYERS AFFORD TO NOT PROVIDE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION TRAINING?

Great article.  Well written and informative.  Just because you may not live or work in Connecticut does not make it relevant to you.
Stay Safe!
Oram Security

CAN CONNECTICUT EMPLOYERS AFFORD TO NOT PROVIDE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION TRAINING?

29Nov10
By:  Melissa Fleischer, Esq.
According to a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year Connecticut had the highest number of workplace violence deaths as well as the highest percent of deaths related to workplace violence incidents of all the six (6) states in New England.  A staggering statistic considering that Connecticut is not the largest in population of the six (6) states and that in fact Massachusetts has a population that is almost twice as large as that of Connecticut.
 Let’s take a look at some of the recent incidents of workplace violence in Connecticut that have contributed to these statistics.  Of course, everyone remembers the recent incident in Manchester, CT at the beer distributorship.  In that incident, Omar Thornton had been called in by management to discuss the tape they had of him appearing to steal beer from one of the trucks he drove.  Mr. Thornton was prepared for this meeting because he apparently had brought with him to work that morning a handgun that he used to shoot  8 people and himself targeting all the members of management that had only a few seconds earlier terminated his employment.
What other incidents of workplace violence has Connecticut seen recently?  Of course in September 2009 there was the tragic murder of Annie Le at Yale University allegedly by a co-worker and lab technician, Raymond Clark III.
What Can Connecticut and all employers do to prevent incidents of workplace violence in their workplaces?  There are proactive steps that employers can take to attempt to prevent incidents of workplace violence.  The first step is to have a well-drafted workplace violence policy that sets forth the definition of workplace violence, that management prohibits workplace violence of any kind and the persons to whom complaints should be submitted regarding any incident of workplace violence.  The policy should also set forth a prohibition on retaliation of any kind.
What else can an employer do to help prevent workplace violence?  Develop an emergency plan including an emergency notification system.  Such a system was in the planning stage when the Virginia Tech attack took place but had not yet been implemented.  An emergency notification system might have helped to avoid some of the bloodshed on that campus.
In addition, employers should of course provide training to their entire workforce on workplace violence prevention as well as on their workplace violence prevention policy.  There are also methods employers can use to make their workplaces safer including better security.  They should also ensure that all doors are equipped with keycard access that can indicate exactly who entered and exited each door at what time.  This keycard access system was helpful in the investigation into the Annie Le murder at Yale University in 2009.
Another important step that employers should take to prevent violence in their workplaces is to ensure that all acts of violence, no matter how small, are dealt with and that the perpetrator is promptly disciplined.  A failure on management’s part to discipline bullies, harassers and confrontational employees can lead to negligent retention claims later on if that employee ends up assaulting another employee or otherwise injuring another employee.
Tough economic times have also probably contributed to this rise in workplace violence in Connecticut.  However, employers can take important steps to attempt to prevent violence in their workplaces.  These steps can not only help to avoid workplace violence incidents but also can help an employer to avoid any liability for future acts of violence

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Al-Qaeda’s Latest Weapon: Poison Perfume

When reading the full article you will see that some feel that the fact that AQAP is resorting to such unusual tactics that they are becoming desperate.  I don't feel that way.  I see this as AQAP using intelligence and initiative to find new ways to spread fear and to attack people when they are unsuspecting.
They’ve sent you exploding printer cartridges. Your Christmas present last year was a twenty-something with a bomb in his skivvies. So what’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s latest gift of murderous gadgetry? In a department store, they’d call it Eau du Terror.

Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper reports that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) recently tried to kill government officials and religious clerics by sending agarwood-scented and poison-dosed perfume to their homes and offices. The Saudi Interior Ministry claims it got wind of the plot after the arrest of 149 al-Qaeda suspects in the country comprising 19 separate cells. The suspects allegedly planned to rob banks in order to pay for the perfume plot and others.

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Friday, December 3, 2010

Body Scans & Pat-downs: Misguided Outrage

by Anthony L. Kimery   
Thursday, 02 December 2010

'To deny the evolving threat we face is foolish' Openly corroborating reporting by Homeland Security Today two years ago, and again earlier last month, the Obama administration acknowledged to ABC News that intelligence shows terrorists have discussed using prosthetics and medical devices to conceal high-explosives and explosives materials in plots to blow-up commercial passenger planes.
ABC News reported that “the revelation about the intelligence, which is not new but relevant to debate over new security measures at airports, comes as the White House … acknowledged that the implementation of the security procedures has not gone perfectly.”
The use of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), the machines that are able to detect objects underneath a person's clothing, and “enhanced pat-downs” for flyers who opt-out of AIT screening, are in direct response to both intelligence and thwarted and failed Al Qaeda attacks that involved concealed “body bombs.
Homeland Security Today first revealed in its August 2008 report, Making Black Magic, that jihadists were experimenting with all sorts of innovative ways to conceal themselves and bombs to avoid detection methodologies and to take advantage of deficiencies in screening technologies. In recent years, these methods included the use of various types of body prosthetics.

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Stay Safe,
Oram Security

Facebook used to deter shoplifting

A handful of frustrated business owners in Brandon, Man., are using Facebook to help curb their shoplifting woes.
Retailers Bob Ritchot and Nicole Epp each said they have started posting pictures of suspected shoplifters on the popular social-networking site to gather tips that can lead police to make arrests.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/10/31/man-brandon-shoplifters-facebook.html#ixzz174GoUM9A

Stay Safe,
Oram Security

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Victim, the Family, the Company: The Three Dimensions of Consequence During a Kidnapping

Interesting look into the world of K&R. (Kidnap and Ransom)
By Christopher Voss 
One of your employees has been kidnapped overseas. You feel the initial shock of hearing the news. Your instant reaction is “I’m responsible. He’s there on my behalf. We’re going to get him out if I have to myself.” Your mind springs into gear. You go through your mental list of processes and procedures, thinking about how your organization will accomplish this task. If, in that moment, you are thinking about changing your approach to making decisions in a crisis, you may be admitting to yourself that you are not completely satisfied with your company’s existing decision-making structure.
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