The things you say Write to: Professional Security Magazine Westcroft, Cannock Road, Wolverhampton WV10 8QW Phone: 01922 415233 Email: info@professionalsecurity.co.uk Web: www.professionalsecurity.co.uk 74 Dog days Regulation of security dogs is long overdue, says a security company chief. While BS 8517-1:2016 Security dogs – Part 1: Code of practice for the use of general security dogs provides an excellent best practice framework, it is not a legal requirement for any supplier of general purpose security dogs to meet the standard. We believe it the Home Office need to review The Private Security Industry Act 2009 and to make dog handling a licensable activity, whereby suppliers would be obliged to meet the code. Organisations such as the National Association of Security Dog Users (NASDU) diligently strive to offer courses, training and their own accreditations, but the reality is that best practice standards are voluntary and so do not provide the industry-wide safeguards against incidents that are unfortunately inevitable. A legal obligation to meet the standard would result in a much safer environment, and a higher level of service to customers who employ general purpose security dog services. It cannot be right that somebody can offer to ‘hire out’ dogs for security use with no safeguards in place to the nature, training or capability of the animal. That this happens serves to illustrate the ridiculous ‘Wild West’ situation we find ourselves in and An individual breach We live in a world where cyberattacks are constantly evolving and organisations are continuously at risk – so the fact that 55 percent of workers can’t remember receiving cybersecurity training is alarming. With the added context that the cost of suffering cyberattacks is on the rise, it becomes unforgivable for businesses to fail to address this. We all know that more often than not, a breach in security can be down to the behaviour of one individual. Therefore every single employee across an organisation is responsible for its security and integrity. However, this expectation Understand enemies Criminals are constantly exploring new ways to find and exploit loopholes in legitimate channels to make the proceeds of crime look like legal tender. Money laundering keeps hospitals from being built as the proceeds of crime contribute nothing to the public purse. Launderers are also bending the property market, pricing first time buyers out. And the profits of money laundering are the cause of organised crime, from drug trafficking and gun smuggling, to fraud and modern slavery. The fight needs a new era of collaboration between financial services, government and technology and compliance. Understanding the motivations and modus operandi of the people behind it is the critical first step. Businesses need to understand the enemies they face to protect themselves. Rob Horton Head of Financial Crime EMEA, BAE Systems NOVEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY the urgency of a review. Hindsight is uncomfortable when talking about unheeded warnings. The risks of unregulated security dogs, services, training and handlers are obvious. The dogs used for security are by definition potentially very dangerous and capable of serious injury or fatality. A 6 stone German Shepherd presents a formidable deterrent when under proper control, but an inadequately trained one in the hands of an inadequately trained or inexperienced handler presents a significant threat to public safety. If and when that moment occurs, and somebody is seriously injured or killed by an inadequately trained animal, it will be the entire security industry that shares the blame. Security companies that strive to provide the highest level of service and safety, using the best trained animals and handlers, and who themselves have invested in achieving at least BS 8517-1:2016 will unfortunately count the costs of reputational damage. As a supplier of security dog services, as well as search dogs, Ward Security takes great pride in its services. Current legislation such as The Guard Dogs Act 1975, The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, and the latest Animal Control Bill 2015 are in place, however, there is an obvious missing piece of the legislative jigsaw. We call upon the security industry and organisations that provide guidance and accreditation to prioritise this important issue and to lobby Government for a strengthening of regulations that cover all aspects of security dog services, including training, handling, hire, and animal welfare. David Ward Chief Executive Officer, Ward Security can only be met if businesses give them the appropriate training and tools to do so. Consider the modern flexible employee – operating beyond their desks, accessing company information on the move and carrying everything they need on mobile devices. One critical technology in securely enabling flexible working is the VPN. With demand only set to grow, we can expect this technology become as widespread in the coming years as firewalls are today. It is only with such tools and strong, organisation-wide training programmes that businesses can best protect themselves from the many threats of today. James Longworth Solutions Architecture Manager, Insight UK Pulling together More than 1,000 incidents were reported to the National Cyber Security Centre in its first year of operation. With so many attacks happening in the digital world we live in, its understandable that we are concerned. It’s one of those things that’s almost impossible to counter as an individual- yes we can patch, we can install security software and we can have in place policies and procedures to help combat opportunistic malware, but when it comes to targeted attacks fired from the minds of extremely intelligent people, the chances of stopping it solo are drastically reduced. The only way we are going to stand a chance is working together, pulling in resources from all fields of expertise in the cyber-security space, Black swan watch How do businesses plan for the next black swan event? writes a consultancy MD. Following the tragic events in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 1, where 59 people were killed and a further 5<strong>27</strong> people were injured after Stephen Paddock opened fire on an open-air country music festival (attended by 20,000 people) from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on the Las Vegas strip. This horrific incident is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. These types of cataclysmic events are often referred to as a ‘black swan’; a term which originates from a period when it was widely accepted that all swans were white. This world view was turned on its head in 1697 when Dutch explorers discovered black swans in Western Australia. Ever since, ‘black swan’ has been used to describe an event with widespread ramifications that was previously assumed to be impossible, yet with hindsight seems almost inevitable. How do you prepare for a totally unprecedented incident? To ensure that your business or family can weather the storm and mitigate the damages of any social, political or economical black swan event, it is vital that you focus on implementing sufficient risk management policies and business contingency plans. Rather than trying to anticipate what the next black swan event will be, it is essential that you devise/execute a plan that will be applicable for any crisis and importantly, work for you. One of the most well known black swan events in history has been the sinking of the Titanic. Before its ill-fated maiden voyage, the Titanic was the largest passenger line in service and was heralded as ‘The Unsinkable Ship’. The Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four of her 16 compartments flooded but no more. Moreover, the Titanic’s lifeboats had only been designed to ferry passengers to nearby rescue vessels and a lack of evacuation management meant that many lifeboats were launched into the sea before they were completely full. As a result, when the Titanic finally sank, of a total 2,208 people on board, 1,503 died. The Titanic highlights the importance of devising allencompassing contingency plans and efficient management policies. Simon Giddins MD, Blackstone Consultancy and having a resource like the National Cyber Security Centre can only be a good thing. It’s not a solid wall of defence, but it’s good protection for the UK while under attack. Somewhere, we can analyse current attacks and hopefully pre-empt new ones based on intelligence and experience- we all want the same thing, a safe place for people to do business, an exciting place for our young to learn and somewhere we can gain knowledge on almost any subject we desire. Sadly the bad guys have moved from the town square picking pockets or bruising up the local businesses for protection money and now live in the digital world lurking in the shadows, waiting to hijack our digital requests- we are not going to stop them completely but we can limit their damage here in the UK. Mark James Security Specialist, ESET www.professionalsecurity.co.uk p74 Letters <strong>27</strong>-11.indd 1 11/10/2017 15:05
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