Security Management Feature: Copper Wire Theft - Assess Your Vulnerability Now!

With scrap market values at record highs of several thousand dollars a tonne, copper wire theft has reached epidemic proportions, especially in Europe, North America and Australia. Much of the stolen wire is smuggled by organised criminals to China, where the construction boom is creating a huge increase in demand. Typical targets of copper thieves include the electricity grid network, the rail network, street lighting and the communications network.

The thieves are fast and audacious. For example, there have been several instances where high voltage copper wire overhead power lines on railways have been removed overnight.

The potential consequential losses involved in copper wire theft are almost too high to assess. At local level electricity grids can be taken off line, and entire communications networks can be brought to a standstill for prolonged periods of time.

Security managers are urged to:

1. Identify locations on site where copper wire is stored or used, and to increase protection. In addition to physical security protection, covert asset marking greases such as that which leaves a “DNA fingerprint” can be used.

2. Clear foliage from vulnerable areas to increase natural surveillance, especially at night.

3. If you are in a remote location and served by copper wires, extend your vehicle patrolling to outside your perimeter at night to create deterrence.

4. Actively engage the local police and share intelligence. Make them aware of your vulnerabilities and expectations, and ask them to make you aware of the local copper wire crime situation.

5. Carry out an extensive vulnerability assessment to determine the organisation’s/facility’s critical dependences on services provided by copper wire, including those provided both internally and externally. In the case of external services, utility providers should be lobbied to increase security spending.

6. Investigate the use of alternative technologies, such as fibre optics for communication and copper weld, the market value of which is less than for copper wire.

To get an idea of what could be targeted in your organisation, google the words copper wire theft and read the 100,000 results!

Security Management Courses: International Security Managers from the UK, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific Share Best Practice in the UK

Fifteen security manager delegates from around the world have gathered in the UK to attend the ARC Training Security Management Stage 1 Course.

The syllabus is extensive, covering the essential core areas of corporate security management best practice, and including a very detailed security risk analysis and design project. Many of the participants are using the course as part of a route to earning a MSc on Corporate Security Management. The course constitutes 30 of the 180 credits required.

Day 2 of the programme saw the participants addressing the issue of security operations management and how to better integrate with the business.

Drawing on their many varied experiences, some of the suggestions put forward were:

1. More emphasis on the softer and generic business management skills, such as communications and interpersonal skills, managing change, leadership, influencing, negotiating, finance, customer interface skills, decision making, internal marketing , and project management skills.

2. Encouraging greater involvement of line management in the day-to-day management of security through relationship building, recognising that security is not a set of physical measures but a condition, which can only be achieved with the collective strength of all employees. In this regard, security awareness training of non-security staff, and allocation to the same for local compliance of security measures was suggested.

3. Making security relevant and interesting to all employees by providing an “extended service”, to provide briefings to staff on particular areas of personal security concern, such as computer security, ID theft, robbery risk reduction and domestic security.

4. Diversification of the security management role to increase the return on security investment. Security managers have a useful contribution to make in the areas of crisis management and business continuity preparation, due diligence and vetting, and the facility or enterprise risk management programme.

The next Security Management Course takes place 4-15 August 2008. Contact Janet for details.

Identity Theft - When the Very Worst Happens

Read on at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7326736.stm

Security Education to Be Taught in Schools Next Year in the UAE

Source: Gulf News

Security education will be included as part of the UAE school curriculum starting next year.
Major General Dr Jamal Al Merri, Dubai Police's Deputy Commandant General, praised the security education programme, which comes under the direction of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to include the programme of the security education as part of a national curriculum to be taught in the country's schools from next year.

Many London-Based Companies Unprepared for Inevitable Further Terrorist Attacks

Source: Businessinsurance.com

Some companies in London are unprepared for a terrorist attack, according to research by Marsh Ltd. In a survey conducted at a seminar on terrorism, more than one-third of delegates from large and medium-sized companies in the Greater London area said they did not have emergency response, crisis management and business recovery plans integrated in their business continuity management framework or risk management strategy.

Marsh surveyed more than 80 attendees at the seminar in London. “While there is little that businesses can do to prevent a terrorist attack, much can be done to mitigate its impact by forming robust BCM plans, running exercises to rehearse their effectiveness, and managing the risk in their supply chain, or understanding the insurance implications,” said Andrew Ketteridge, a business risk consultant at Marsh, in a statement.

IT Security Management - Malware Has Quadrupled in Past 2 Years - Some Simple Precautions to Keep You Safe

Source: Washington Post

The number of malicious software programs vying to take up residence on unsuspecting computer users' hard drives has quadrupled in the past two years, according to German security experts AV. In the first two months of 2008, AV Test found more than 1 million samples of malware spreading online.

Much of the malware harvests financial and personal data, which is sold to groups that turn the information into cash through identity fraud. Cyber criminals also use infected machines to anonymously attack others, relay junk e-mail or host fraudulent Web sites advertised through spam.

A special emphasis is placed on creating malware that exists peacefully with infected computer systems, doing its work quietly in the background. Today's cyber criminals are continuously updating the malware they have managed to install on victims' computers, replacing older malicious files with new ones to keep them hidden. And anti-virus programs aren’t sufficient defence. For many users, some of the most tenacious intruders cannot easily be removed without reinstalling operating systems.

Malware enters the corporate computer chain via a number of vulnerabilities. These include:

- Infected websites. Even seemingly legitimate websites can be infected.
- Poor thumb drive discipline.
- Picking up CDs at international exhibitions.
- Poor home PC security, leading to malware passing via laptops to corporate networks.
- Opening email attachments.
- Clicking on links in emails from unknown or spoofed sources.

Remember than once inside your firewall, some data-stealing malware can then remain undetected.

ARC Training’s Information and IT Security Workshop addresses these and many other common data security vulnerabilities. Dates are:

7 April 2008
11 August 2008
24 November 2008

Or on-site, on request. Contact Janet.
For more on the story above click below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903614.html

Security Management Training: Security Supervisors in Lagos

ARC is continuing its successful collaboration with Cardinal Security Services in Lagos, Nigeria, with its Security Supervisors' Course. The course, attended by 20 delegates from various industries, is designed to provide skills and awareness of the specific requirements for supervising security operations and associate manpower.

Phil, who is leading this course, has been particularly impressed by the delegates' enthusiasm and business knowledge and notes that between them they have a wide range of business, management and security degrees and qualifications - all this in addition to over 300 years collective experience in the security profession!