For Security & Protection Specialists
Risk and Retaliation at the World Cup and Beyond. On 3/26/2018, the United States joined 20 nations including the UK, Canada, and Italy in what is said to be the largest coordinated expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.
Over 100 Russian diplomats were told to leave their foreign postings in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy living in the UK. Russia promised to retaliate against this “provocative gesture”.
The best protection against such SIM swapping methods is simple. Buy a dual SIM phone with a second pay-as-you-go number on a separate provider, which is used only for these authentication purposes. Since nothing is tying the number directly to you, it becomes much more challenging for an attacker to carry out a SIM swap.
It’s the final wrap up of the last day of your Close Protection training course. It’s been a long, and at times grueling, process but ultimately rewarding on multiple levels.
Along the way you’ve met some people you have really gelled with (and a couple that you have no plans on staying in contact with once class ends.) Overall, you enjoyed the experience, feel like you have gotten your moneys worth, and can say that you have some new, “tools for the toolbox.”
Although the underlying principle of understanding ‘capability and intention’ and the objective of ‘forewarned is forearmed’ have not dramatically altered overtime, the sheer scale of intelligence available in the Open Source environment means that the greatest risk today is information overload rather than information scarcity.
It is in this context that in order to acquire and analyse asymmetric and potentially outcome-defining intelligence, analysts are required to think more laterally than ever and be able to draw both strategic and tactical conclusions from intelligence which may be independent and accurate as much as it may be deliberately misleading or presented through an emotional prism. SOCial Media INTelligence (SOCMINT) is one such instance of lateral thinking. FINancial INTelligence is another.
Over the course of my career (17+ years), I have heard my fair share of complaints from potential clients indicating that their current surveillance/investigative partner was not achieving the desired results with the budgets provided. The activities and behaviors of people are constantly changing and that forces us as investigators to change our approach and evaluate our practices in order to achieve optimal results.
2017 has been an interesting year for politics, particularly American politics. On these shores, we had an election for the history books, one which pitted the wife of a former President against a billionaire reality show host.
“Elijah, I’m glad you choose me for the assignment, just so you know I have to be home on the 15th as my son has his little league try-outs.” I’ll have to be honest and say, if the assignment extends past the 15th, I’m likely going to use someone else from the outset. Why? Because VIP clients appreciate familiarity but the rotation of celebrity protection agents does not project stability, instead, it implies just the opposite.
My take is that in the Close Protection industry, our Armchair Quarterbacks are oftentimes doing the business on multiple levels to varying degrees of success, but instead of enjoying that success and motivating and inspiring others, they spend a noticeable degree of time criticizing every play someone else makes.
“Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.” Michelangelo Michelangelo like most of the polymath heroes of my past has always had a unique way of stating the very complicated, in the simplest of terms. When we apply his advice and knowledge of “carving is easy, you just go down to […]
We have all heard the old saying, “Pictures are worth a thousand words,” so who wants an autograph, when a photo with your favorite celebrity conveys much more perceived authenticity? This also has value in the arena of SOCIAL capital.
