A recent report by Black Kite analyzed 2,708 ransomware victims from April 2022 to March 2023, revealing a significant resurgence in ransomware attacks. The number of victims in March was nearly double that of last April and 1.6 times higher than the peak month in 2022.
Residential Security
Just because someone has a security or private investigators license it does not mean they are competent or not working with the criminals. What a lot of people forget when hiring security personnel is that you get what you pay for.
Cutting Out the Middle Man
Tight defence budgets keep slashing headcounts for active duty personnel, leaving the military no alternative other than to outsource tasks when troops are stretched.
Establishing Your Career Path in Close Protection
To clarify, the commercial close protection industry is challenging for most people to enter, mainly because it is a very small and ‘cliquey’ world where doors usually open for people if they know the right people. So, to start with, networking is a valuable key to opening the doors.
BASIC RANGE CONSIDERATIONS
My professional experience with firearms started when I was 17 years old, and I joined an Infantry Regiment in the British Army. After leaving the British Army five years later, I worked in an armed capacity in numerous countries while providing security services.
Foot Steps: Mike Brown
Mike Brown is one of those individuals who has found success as an operator by envisioning where he wanted to end up and trusting the process to take him there. In his time in the industry, he has earned his stripes and now reaps the rewards running a successful business and managing the protective detail for a very well-known public figure. I speak to Mike to learn some of his keys to success.
Surviving Lockdown 3.0
No matter who you are, everyone has been affected by the pandemic, hopefully, all of us out there are surviving but no doubt there will be some that may be struggling more than most.
Know Your Value – How much are you really worth?
Clients may not always enjoy paying for services rendered, but they appreciate knowing they are getting good value for the money they spend on personal protection. When you stick to your guns and know your value you send a message to your client that your services are worth every penny of what you are charging.
Executive Protection 2.1
William Shakespeare said, “Defer no time, Delays have dangerous ends”. What we do now in these trying times, we will either profit from or suffer from. Why is it that some survive these times in our industry, and some do not? What steps can be taken to avoid a crisis in your employment status?
Clients Should You Trust them?
There needs to be a healthy relationship with your clients, you don’t want to let them dominate you, and you don’t want to try to dominate and control them.
Boundaries must always be made clear as this works to protect you and your client’s interests. Clients are not your friends, they are clients paying you to provide them with a service, and if boundaries are ignored, it can undermine any respect in the business relationship.
Kidnap & Ransom – Finding a Resolution
If you’re travelling to today’s hostile environments as an International actor, anywhere from Mexico to Afghanistan, and all the bad places in between, it would be madness to go without K&R insurance coverage, especially as it helps to reduce your overall insurance costs of travelling to these places.
Foot Steps Episode 5: Sam Alicea
What were some takeaways you obtained from your past line of work? And how have they helped you in the private sector realm?
When I look at the totality of what we do in this industry there are quite a few takeaways. From having dealt with the irate couples during a domestic dispute to negotiating a business deal the importance of not only verbal judo but communicative and interpersonal skills tops the list, followed by the skills I learned from collecting evidence at a crime scene where attention to detail was key.
Leading for the Future – Excellence through Inspiration
Value-driven leadership doesn’t mean you tolerate underperformance, it just means excellence can be achieved with balance and inspiration and doesn’t require intimidation to garner results. As a leader, unless you have clarity in vision, you can never inspire others to follow. People don’t mind being led, as long as they know you understand where you are going.
Bodyguards in Mexico
The realities of working as a bodyguard in Mexico are quite different, it’s definitely a lot more dangerous and a lot less glamorous than Hollywood would have you believe.
Mexico is a very high-risk environment that most people know very little about other than what they see in the movies or what is scantily reported in the media. There is very little factual media coverage of what’s going on in Mexico as journalists that report unfavorably about the Narcos, and others tend not to live very long.
Operating in Mexico – The Uncomfortable Truth
There are many misconceptions about close protection and private security operations in Mexico. As usual, most of the myths originate from Hollywood movies and fictional T.V. dramas. The realities of working as a bodyguard in Mexico are quite different, it’s definitely a lot more dangerous and a lot less glamorous than Hollywood would have you believe.
Confidentiality: Personal Choice or Professional code of conduct?
Surprisingly, many people who took part in the thread commented, saying that they don’t find anything wrong with it. Some of them even named their own old clients. Others tried to justify the practice of name-dropping by saying it was a former client, or that they didn’t reveal anything personal about the client, or that they had the client’s approval to post that picture or to name the client. And finally, some said their client is already pretty well-known and paparazzi are always getting pictures of them together so why hide it? Essentially, they are good guys, and how dare we criticize people we don’t know. These were a number of the comments from individuals who either work in the security industry as operatives or own companies and hire agents to represent them.
What is Executive Protection?
In the past, I viewed Executive Protection (EP) as persons who provided corporate level protection. This was the guy who only walked with the CEO, politician, or other important corporate executives and dignitaries. With my limited understanding, I didn’t think of those who drive these same individuals as being considered Executive Protection agents as well. As an EP specialist, I now understand and have experienced some of the vast role’s EP work will encompass.
Find Your Own Lane
Before you build your company’s or personal brand lets first take a moment to reconcile what branding is and how it differs from marketing. Branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and/or image for a product or service in the mind of the consumer. The goal of “Branding” is to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers. What differentiated message have you created in the mind of your desired clientele?
Due Diligence and Why It Is Required
Due Diligence and Why It Is Required. The biggest blocks that prevent people from carrying due-diligence is their egos as they feel they are wise enough to spot a scammer, also they don’t want to offend those they are dealing with by seeming not to trust them. These are things that scammers and manipulators exploit to the maximum. I forget how many times I have heard people who have been scammed or victimized say they thought the perpetrator was a decent person because they were introduced to them by a friend, my reply to this usually is “define a friend”.
Executive Protection Fail – Jeff Bezos
The tabloid said it had evidence that Bezos has been “whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet.
“Jeff Bezos is the founder of the online retailer Amazon and one of the richest people in the world. He has just made public that he will be getting divorced from his wife of 25 years after an extra marital affair was made public, that’s his personal business… The divorce could cost him 50% of his wealth including his stocks in Amazon, which could lead to control issues for the company and shareholders, this is company business… Again, someone’s personal life has gotten them and their company into big trouble!
