Intelligence is becoming as essential for modern security in the private and non-profit sectors as it has long been for governments. In this column, Daniil Davydoff helps you navigate and leverage the latest ideas and developments in intelligence analysis, global and workplace risk, threat assessments and investigations.
There are strategies for avoiding the downsides of typical micromanagement, however, by following the path of enlightened micromanagement. Here are a few tips.
ASIS International’s Certified Protection Professional (CPP) certification is highly beneficial for security professionals seeking leadership roles. It has its flaws but, anecdotally, I have seen it mentioned in job ads more often than any other designation. When I passed the requisite exam in early February and promised to offer my thoughts, the reaction from future test-takers was welcoming. So here they are. To paraphrase the Law & Order TV franchise, “this is my story. DUN DUN.”
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is having a moment. Just a few years ago, presentations on OSINT began with a quote from one of a few different senior intelligence community officials who reportedly said that somewhere between 80-90% of valuable information comes from public sources. Many presentations today start similarly, but OSINT no longer needs the validation of government greats. Films like Searching and Don’t f**ck with Cats have introduced the discipline to a wider audience, organizations such as Trace Labs host popular OSINT competitions for the common good, and the investigators associated with the website Bellingcat are now media fixtures.
Our baseline level of suspicion about the security of data and communications is very high these days. Are smart devices recording conversations and conveying them to marketers?
With GDP growth on the continent reaching its highest rate since 2012 and long-term prospects equally favorable, Africa holds great promise for investors. But alongside opportunities, foreign enterprises face vast gaps in their knowledge of the business landscape.
From the standpoint of risk analysis, recency bias—that is, an overwhelming focus on events that have happened most recently—is one of the most nefarious psychological blinders.
A cursory review of the latest writing on public sector intelligence analysis reveals a great deal of soul-searching about emerging threats to the profession.
Despite the availability of an experimental vaccine and the recent experience of a major Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is failing to address what is now the world’s second-largest outbreak of the disease.
If there is any broad lesson we have learned over the past decade of global developments, it is the extent to which risks are connected and the shocks that can result if we do not acknowledge their linkages