During a recent security industry event, I was asked by an attendee if he believed increasing the security industry’s bonding is a good strategy to prevent accidents. He indicated that while he appreciated the efforts of the bonding contractors to make their work more efficient, in his view the bondi industry has been lax on enforcement and often does not enforce contracts where it should. It also seems that many bondi agencies are “all talk” and not much effort goes into actually following through with any of the intelligence gathered. This raises questions as to whether the industry is truly taking measures to mitigate accidents caused by unprofessional contractors.
In order to increase the security of any facility whether they are a facility such as an airport, an office complex or a medical center a great deal of time and money needs to be invested. In fact, the security industry realizes this and works very hard at being responsible. Bondi understands that accidents can occur and the frequency need not be as frequent as other professions (ie. the average automobile dealer). By understanding the frequency and severity of accidents related to the work atmosphere, and using a countermeasures strategy such as the spectrum analyzer discussed previously, the bondi industry can help to decrease the frequency of such occurrences.
This brings me to another question posed at the security industry event. How can we insure that the bond agencies are implementing all the countermeasures outlined above? How can we ensure that the agents are following all the rules and regulations outlined in their contracts? How can we ensure that the agents are not using electronic eavesdropping or monitoring methods which violate any of the existing laws protecting American citizens?
Some might suggest that we should monitor the communications of the contractors and use a listening device to locate and identify them if they break any of the existing laws. There are some good arguments on that issue. However, the majority of the countermeasures discussed above already take care of this problem. If the contractors don’t know that they are monitored and that the government is listening to them, they will not know that they are engaging in illegal behavior. This, of course, is one of the many reasons why employers must implement strong anti-spyware and anti-virus software into their company computer systems.
So we see that the increase in business espionage is due to many things. It appears to be the perfect storm of increasing competition, globalization and decreased budgets due to the economic downturn. The increased focus on countermeasures is a direct result of these factors and we can expect many more enhancements and countermeasures over the coming years. As technology and government become more intertwined, it is only a matter of time before it becomes necessary to integrate everything. At the current rate that we are going, this could happen within five years.
If you have never been a victim of a cyber attack or have heard of the term “cyberspace,” do some research. You may be surprised by what you find out. While you are reading, think about how easy it would be to counter any sort of operation if you knew the basic layout of any computer system. Now imagine if you were able to find all of this out and how much it would change how that company did business. In other words, we are going to see an increase in business Espionage as countermeasures are developed. This trend is going to continue and we must prepare our businesses for this coming storm.