American citizen Paul Whelan sits in prison in Russia accused of espionage. Although Whelan fits an unlikely profile for a spy, some of his behavior such as possessing US, UK, Canadian and Irish passports and having made multiple contacts within the Russian defense and security services may have contributed to his downfall. Whelan’s arrest on…
The worldwide economic impact of COVID-19 raises new issues for travelers staying in hotels as travel resumes. Not only is there a general risk of increased crime, civil unrest and political instability that is likely to be present as travel resumes, but there may be some direct issues that impact the safety of hotel stays….
How much personal information should you share online? How much information is available about you online that you can’t control? What happens when online risk transfers to the physical world? Its exceedingly difficult to answer these questions. Situations and individual threat profiles will vary greatly. I can say with certainty that the intersection of cyber…
Who is more vulnerable? Who is at greater risk? A short-term traveler or a long-term visitor/expatriate? It’s an interesting question and one without a clear-cut answer. All other things being equal, each one can present its own set of vulnerabilities. Let’s look at each one and then compare and contrast. For simplicity sake I will…
Adversarial mindset is important to any security program whether you are protecting a Fortune 500 company, critical infrastructure, a high net worth person or yourself. We discussed some of the elements of using adversarial mindset here: http://iprotectiveconcepts.com/4-steps-to-taking-the-adversarys-perspective-and-enhancing-your-security/. I should empathize at this point I am mainly looking at protection against physical threats and not looking…
Today we are going to venture a little bit into the realm of corporate security. I realize that many readers may not be as interested in this area and are focused more on individual protection. No need to worry as two of the skillsets we are going to discuss are also very applicable to personal…
One of the greatest challenges in protecting a global workforce and training travelers and personnel undertaking overseas assignments is getting them to understand that the individual rights they enjoy in their home country don’t travel with them overseas. This is particularly true of Americans who are imbued from an early age with the concept of…
Most of us raised in the US and other democracies have been taught from an early age to seek out a police officer for assistance when they have a problem. Unfortunately this is not always the best course of action in the developing world. In these locations police and other security forces are often best…
When evaluating threat information, especially information received from subscription security intelligence services which are produced for a broad audience, it is essential to view them in the context of your company’s operations. Many, if not most providers, use a color and/or numerical rating to designate the risk level of a particular city or country. …
Local sources of information can be immensely valuable when assessing the threat level at a location. These local sources may include host country national employees, expatriate employees or expatriates affiliated with another organization, employees of vendors or others. They are often able to provide excellent insight as they are there on the ground in the…