Simon Banks is a high-profile security entrepreneur. He started work in the area of alarm signalling and went on to develop one of the UK largest IOT critical connectivity providers. He has invested in other ventures including Skills for Security. Amongst his many other ventures he has started his own Foundation (The Banks Foundation) which is a Fo…

Tim McCreight has worked in IT and physical security for nearly four decades. He has been closely associated with developing the theory and practice of Enterprise Security, indeed he considers himself an ESRM evangelist. He has a Masters degree in Security and Risk Management, is an experienced podcaster on security and risk issues, and is the imme…

Bill Tenney started work earlier this year as the new CEO of ASIS International. Unlike his predecessors, Bill has a background as a security executive with considerable corporate security expertise – in business, government, and the military (he is a Navy Veteran). His work has included securing data, and enabling operations in over 40 countries a…

Bill Fox is internationally renowned for his knowledge and expertise in violence risk reduction and behaviour management, and in particular for having directed learning and innovation in this field for the past three decades. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Maybo a company he started 28 years ago which focusses on workplace conflict and…

Bob Martin has over 35 years’ experience in the Petrochemical industry, and worked in a diverse range of business operational environments before establishing a specialism in security. He brought with him a range of skills, for example on strategy development, integration, management systems, data management and crucially the importance of the ‘val…

This podcast provides a chilling insight into the world of crime. Terry didn't think there was anything inevitable in his early childhood that would lead to him becoming a persistent priority offender in his mid teens. Led by older boys and attracted by the high rewards of fraud, theft and commercial burglary he saw little value in legitimate pursu…

Joanna Shapland is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield having previously been a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford where she directed the first major study of victims, an interest she continues to this day and is the Executive Editor of the International Review of Victimology. Alongside this she has undertaken pioneer…

Sissel H. Jore is a Professor in Risk Management and Societal Safety at the University of Stavanger, Norway. She is a recognised global expert for her varied research interests which includes terrorism, counterterrorism, security risk management, and risk perception. Jore is the chair of the Security Defence Speciality Group and is an elected board…

Professor Mike Levi has an international reputation for excellence in researching economic crime which includes money laundering, corruption, cybercrimes, fraud, transnational organised crime and white-collar crimes. This is reflected in recent major lifetime achievement awards from the British, American and European Societies of Criminology, the A…

Annette Kimitei has over 20 years’ experience in the leadership of private security in East Africa and specifically Kenya. She is currently Managing Director of one of the major security suppliers and has been active in security associations including Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and Women in Safety Excellence (WISE) where she has led the …

Mike Croll’s early career included working as an Army Bomb Disposal Officer and a Counter Terrorist Search Advisor. Later he was Head of Overseas Security at the FCO, and then held a similar appointment with the EU providing security for European diplomats, before becoming Director of Operations at the UN Department of Safety and Security. After se…

Nick Dynon is a licensed security consultant based in New Zealand who works for one of the country’s leading integrators. He has a government background in immigration and border security; has served as a diplomat; and in the military. He is editor of three magazines: the New Zealand Security Magazine, the Line of Defence Magazine and Fire NZ Magaz…

Professor Paul Ekblom is a leading authority on crime and its prevention. He has committed his career to developing frameworks and toolkits that can be used to guiding the work of security practitioners. He has even located these on a free to use website: www.crimeframeworks.com. They are diverse and cover many aspects. After a career as a criminol…

Victoria Ekhmou is an experienced security professional having started work in security in the early 1990s and is now one of the leading authorities on security in Africa. She is Board Certified by the Professional Certification Board of ASIS International as a Certified Protection Professional (CPP) and has expertise in a range of specialisms incl…

Peter has a distinguished career in association management. Despite overseeing and spearheading transformational change in his eight plus years as the CEO of ASIS International the Global Board of Directors decided it wants a new type of leader and has recently announced the appointment of William “Bill” Tenney. In this interview Peter discusses hi…

Daniel Lewkovitz is the CEO at Calamity Monitoring, one of Australia's leading security and life safety providers . With over two decades of experience in security and risk management, Daniel's expertise spans physical security, cybersecurity, life-safety monitoring, security system design, antiterrorism, and expert witness services. He has a Maste…

Professor Gloria Laycock is one of the world’s leading scholars on crime prevention. A trained psychologist who has worked extensively in the prison service, Government policy and research and then in academia as a Professor of Crime Science at the Jill Dando Institute. Outspoken, direct and popular, with a keen commitment to ensuring that the find…

Bonnie Michelman is a well-known senior security executive and consultant who has spearheaded the professionalism of the private security sector. She has been President of and chaired the boards of top security industry professional organizations including ASIS International and International Security Management Assoc (ISMA). Bonnie is a recognised…

Brian Allen is a former Chief Security Officer with Time Warner Cable and then an advisor to company boards and C-suites on their cybersecurity obligations. He now collaborates across the financial sector on security policy and advocacy work. He is also a university lecturer and author of security books that bridge the divide between physical and c…

This episode contains strong language Dr Rich Diston is a career security practitioner, with a MSc with distinction and a professional doctorate. He has held too many professional accreditations to count, and currently holds strong views about security practice and the industry. He works as a trainer/consultant helping develop security professional…

No doubt all of us have experienced or are aware of the dangers posed by ransomware attacks. But it would be a mistake to see the motives as purely financial gain, it is more complex than that. Indeed, there are many areas of interest. For example, nation state actors are involved, but how? What are their motives? Where are the risks? How significa…

There is now an abundance of security qualifications and certifications, they have taken off dramatically in recent years. But are there now too many to the extent that it has led to confusion and undermined their very credibility? Does it matter? Are some more credible than others and how should we distinguish? To what extent does the credibility …

While it is well known that in order to operate terrorists need weapons, what is less well known and much less discussed is how they get them. In this interview, Frank Portinari explains how he developed from being a football hooligan, to involvement in right wing extremism, to supplying guns to loyalist paramilitaries entering the world of terrori…

Body worn cameras have been widely heralded by the security sector for generating a range of benefits, not least the fact they provide evidence to support interactions preventing – or at least reducing the chances – of frivolous claims of malpractice. They have also been welcomed for giving the security personnel who use them confidence in tricky s…

It has long been argued that the knowledge domains of cyber and physical security professionals differ markedly, in some cases complicating converged activities. At the same time there has been a great coming together, not always harmoniously. So where are we now? In terms of outstanding performance what can each group of professionals learn from t…

There has been a growth of different mechanisms around the world for the initial notification and management of security incidents, but there has been relatively little discussion about the pros and cons of the best ways of doing so effectively. Arguably this is the crucial stage of security response, ineffectiveness here can be severely detrimenta…

The traditional problem, suppliers want to charge more for a better service versus clients who want to pay less for a more targeted service, has been and is being played out globally. The difficulty of recruiting personnel, and keeping them, plus the opportunities provided by technology against a background of economic austerity are factors that ar…

BIDs, which operate under various names first grew to prominence in Canada and the USA and have since expanded across the world. In essence they involve businesses coming together to improve the local and business trading environment with mixed success. Certainly, the role for security varies, sometimes being (at best) marginal and other times core…

There are well rehearsed benefits of whistleblowing. For the organisation is not least the opportunity to learn about risks that might otherwise not be identified, and being seen to be following good corporate governance. But what about for the whistle-blower? How can and do organisations prevent victimisation and detriment? How common are these? O…

Around the world ‘Food and Agriculture’ is often designated a Critical Infrastructure Sector. It is diverse – e.g. crops, livestock, poultry, seafood – and the threats are as diverse as climate change, international conflicts and theft and fraud including by organised criminals. Clearly this is an area where security professionals have had to step …

Fraud is now the most common offence. The sense is that offenders have adapted quicker than those responsible for preventing and responding to crime. There was once a view that suffering financial loss was much less traumatic than suffering physically and that is gradually being challenged. But where are we with managing the response to being victi…

The notion that there are physical security products and, separately, digital security products belongs in a museum. These days, all electronic physical security products are cyber ones too. And while that generates enormous advantages, it also has limits; for starters it creates security weaknesses. Research around the Internet of Things (IoT) has…

There is a wealth of understandable enthusiasm for promoting ED&I in business, morally, ethically and also, and for business this is important, commercially too. The question is, how strong is the evidence that ED&I is good for business? Where does that come from and what does it suggest? Then there are the practical ways of measuring it, how can t…

There are many offences against wildlife and they can be serious. For example, illegal wildlife markets are being exploited by international organised crime groups because they are seen as low risk and high reward. The consequences are serious, the widespread problem of illegal fishing is just one example where the impact has been under employed fi…

Smart cities have long been heralded as a definitive opportunity to harness technological developments for business efficiency and human contentment. In some quarters they appear to be discussed as an unqualified good. But are they? Where there is technology there are risks of security weaknesses, and the bigger the strategic use the greater the po…

Every June, the LGBTQ+ community across the globe organises a range of events to shine a light on the LGBTQ+ community. It is timely then to assess what is happening in the security sector. Are tangible and progressive actions being taken to be truly inclusive? Are the right sort of collaborations taking place and how are they faring? This webinar …

There are well established advantages to using robots in security roles. For example, they can independently perform programmed tasks with minimal human oversight, including conducting routine patrols and doing so cost effectively, more productively than humans since they don’t get tired or bored, and work more safely in hazardous environments. But…

Healthcare fraud is a massive problem, the scale of which is only best guessed at, the FBI estimates ‘tens of billions of dollars’, are lost annually in the US, in England alone the government estimates well over a £1 billion was lost last year. The word ‘fraud’ in fact disguises a wide range of criminal acts that vary greatly involving staff (some…

It is good business to be seen to be supporting the ‘green agenda’, and certainly bad news follows or is likely to follow an organisation that is not committed. But how would we know? Do security professionals really care and if so how is that reflected? The ‘environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)’ concept is becoming more renowned bu…

Following the publication of the IFPO report, ‘The Competence of Frontline Security Professionals and What They Say About Their Work’, this webinar will evaluate the process for improving the role of the frontline worker (and the perception if it by others). The webinar will discuss the implications of the findings about the sorts of roles they fin…

We have tended to focus our attention on areas that have been worse affected by the pandemic. However, in a previous webinar on the impact of the pandemic on Scandinavia we heard that the impact had been modest, certainly much less than the worst affected nations. A main challenge was managing fears that the pandemic had generated, as much about sa…

Ireland has long been recognised for being good at security. The traditional challenges of terrorism just across the border, the numbers of murders and drug offences over time have also had an impact in focussing the response of different groups responsible for public protection. The security sector has been subject to regulation as part of a commi…

Security has been in the news. Some say it takes a crisis for security to be seen as valuable. Covid 19 represented a worldwide crisis that globally appears to have put security centre stage. But when it is over, what then? What have we learnt and what should we be thinking about, the next pandemic perhaps, austerity in the wake of economic hardshi…

The image the public have of the security sector has frequently been seen as its Achilles Heel. Yet surveys of workers, at different levels, have referred to it as an exciting place to work. Why then, is there both so little coverage of security issues in the mainstream media, and why is it that what is covered is often negative? Meanwhile, the eme…

When a group of security professionals were informally discussing which country stood out as having adopted a firm approach to Covid, New Zealand was the most frequently mentioned. Has it been a success? What about the security sector there, how has it been affected, how has it adapted, and what does it see as the big issues that it has had to mana…

There has long been debate about what the proper role of auditors should be in relation to tackling fraud. Two recent reviews revealed a real gap between reality and expectations of audit performance. Current guidance is that auditors should take a more holistic approach towards fraud. However, auditors cannot do this on their own. They need to car…

150th Episode The security sector regularly discusses diversity issues, this is unsurprising since they are a major challenge. However, most of the focus has been on the need to promote women and be more racially diverse. Laudable though these are what has been less salient has been coverage of any challenges in engaging the disabled and the LGBT c…

The so called ‘Manchester Arena bombing’, at an Ariana Grande concert on the 22nd of May 2017 resulted in 22 deaths and over 250 injuries. In response the Government has proposed the 'Protect Duty, in short a requirement that those in charge of venues where the public gather are required to ensure there is proportionate security in place. Surely th…

There is considerable discussion about supporting the future workers and leaders of the security sector, about the need to create career pathways and provide supportive training and mentoring. Certainly, there is a range of group and support networks for young security professionals and associations have dedicated sections to engage, and support. B…

Degree fraud is an extremely serious but underrepresented area of fraud involving the use of fake credentials to obtain employment or any other benefit. Once employed in an organisation with fake credentials, the fraudster is much more likely to engage in other forms of crime such as embezzlement or falsifying documents. While in some countries the…