Save Your Data and Secure Your Business

For many organizations, Business Continuity (BC) means securing their data and IT systems against failure. Although BC planning is about a lot more than just IT, it is prudent to ensure that if disaster strikes, your information is safe.

There are many methods of preserving systems and information - effective methods are storage virtualization and replication, both of which can save your business if implemented appropriately and wisely. Chris Ross, of Bakbone Software, provides more detail on these methods and of their potential for maintaining continuity here.

ARC features IT Security and Business Continuity in several of its training courses in 2008. For more details contact Janet or check the 2008 brochure.

The New Breed of Cyber-Terrorist. "Most Companies and Organisations Seem Oblivious to the Threat" Warns DHS

According to cyber-security experts, the terror attacks of 11 September and 7 July could be seen as mere staging posts compared to the havoc and devastation that might be unleashed if terrorists turn their focus from the physical to the digital world, reports the UK newspaper "The Independent".

Scott Borg, the director and chief economist of the US Cyber Consequences Unit (CCU), a Department of Homeland Security advisory group, believes that attacks on computer networks are poised to escalate to full-scale disasters that could bring down companies and kill people. He warns that intelligence "chatter" increasingly points to possible criminal or terrorist plans to destroy physical infrastructure, such as power grids. Al-Qa'ida, he stresses, is becoming capable of carrying out such attacks.

Most companies and organisations seem oblivious to the threat. Usually, they worry about e-mail viruses and low-grade hacker attacks. But Borg sees these as the least of their worries. "Up to now, executives and network professionals have worried about what adolescents and petty criminals have been doing," he says. "In most cases, these kinds of cyber attacks aren't very destructive. The reason is that businesses generally have enough inventory and extra capacity to make up for any short-term interruptions."

What companies and organisations should worry about, Borg insists, is "what grown-ups could do" - terrorists or hardcore criminals. One key target would probably be the vital Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) systems in power plants and similar industries. "Chatter on Scada attacks is increasing," says Borg, referring to patterns of behaviour that suggest that criminal gangs and militant groups are now fully capable of unleashing such attacks.

Read on here.

Keeping Safe at Railway Stations

Security Managers, as part of their employee security awareness programme, should periodically remind staff who commute by rail of the dangers of congregating on large station concourses, such as those found in major cities like London. In some stations irresponsible railway company practice of not publishing platform departure details until the final minutes before train departure exacerbates this problem as it creates a very compact and attractive target immediately in front of the large display screens.

While police presence has been dramatically stepped up in these areas, this presents little defence against a suicide attack. Staff should be advised to choose more remote, less congregated, areas in which to wait for trains, and to remain vigilant to anybody behaving suspiciously.

The potential devastation to human life of a railway station bomb was illustrated on August 2, 1980, when a bomb explosion at the Central Station in Bologna, Italy, killed 85 people and wounded a further 200.

Do You Really Know Who Is Guarding Your Facility?

The UK Home Office has admitted illegal immigrants have been mistakenly cleared for jobs as security staff. Government ministers have ordered new checks to be carried out on hundreds of thousands of security staff vetted by the Security Industry Authority over the past three years.

In the interim, security managers in the UK are advised to contact their guarding contract managers to seek reassurance that the latter have carried out their own diligent pre-employment checks on foreign guards prior to deployment to clients’ premises.

Selecting a Guarding Contractor is one of a number of new sessions to be added to Security Management Stage 2, which runs 30 June - 11 July and 13 - 24 October 2008.

The session will focus on the mechanisms that have to be in place to ensure a good guarding contract, and will be led by a management representative from a leading UK guarding contractor, allowing course participants to interact and identify key elements of best practice.

Fraud at the Met?

Scotland Yard has refused to comment on a News of the World press report that up to £6m of credit cards expenses are unaccounted for and hundreds of police officers are likely to be interviewed, following the arrest of 2 detectives over allegations that staff Amex credit cards were used to pay for personal expenses.

For the full story click here.

A CCD or a CMOS Chip in a CCTV Camera? Which Should You Chose?

Time was when CCTV cameras with CCD chips were always superior to those with CMOS chips. This is no longer necessarily the case. And with the advent of power-over-Ethernet cameras and with CMOS chips consuming just one-hundredth of the power of CCD chips, perhaps now is the time to reconsider.

Read on at:

http://www.axis.com/products/video/camera/ccd_cmos.htm

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question362.htm

ASIS International European Security Management Conference, Barcelona, 13-16 April 2008

The International Academy for Security Management is delighted to announce that Director of Training David Cresswell has been invited to address the ASIS International European Security Conference on the subject of terrorism risk analysis.

The presentation will focus on an examination of the validity of formal risk analysis methodologies to the tricky task of terrorism risk determination, and will draw on a dissertation of the same subject which won for David the 2007 Imbert Prize for best security management dissertation of the year.

This will be ASIS International’s 7th European Security Conference and will be held in Barcelona over the period 13-16 April 2008. Approximately 500 delegates are expected to attend in order to network in this unique setting and to listen to almost 40 speakers covering every aspect of security, with a particular focus on Europe.

For details on how to register click here.