The Noggin Blog

What integrated safety and security management capabilities do you need?

As many of you know, we decided, after a short sabbatical, to revive our User Conference initiative, so as to share best practices in safety and security management that we’ve learned over time, best practices which have also informed the development of our next-generation product, Noggin 2.0.

As a Safety leader, you’ve probably built a strong portfolio in the organisation. So too has your counterpart in Security. And now both of you see key safety and security priorities, like keeping employees safe at work or mitigating threats to facilities and people, reflected at the highest levels.

Focus on physical security controls in ISO 27001

Serious about securing your valuable assets, digital as well as physical? Well, international standards prescribe baselines for securing those assets. The ISO 27001 information security management systems standard, in particular, focuses on securing information assets.

Everyone knows Woolworths. It’s no overstatement to say that Woolworths is synonymous with the Australian supermarket. After all, the mega-retailer accounts for some 80 percent of market share, a fixture in Australia’s (and New Zealand’s) cities, towns, and rural communities.

The premier, comprehensive homeland security event in the nation, the 2019 National Homeland Security Conference brings together an impressive array of homeland security professionals. 

Take a look at the figures. Eighteen percent of all violent crimes occur in the workplace. Victim deaths are especially high in retail.

Security operations centers offer some pretty clear business benefits: improved situational awareness and visibility, reduced long-term security costs, and less operational security siloing. But despite the manifold benefits, SOC adoption isn’t universal. Far from it: in fact, according to EY’s Global Information Security Survey, 2017-2018, just half (or so) of all surveyed organizations have an SOC. What’s going on with the rest?

The ever-increasing threat level at major events puts even more pressure on organizers to ensure event security. To learn what some of the leading security professionals are doing to combat the growing threat, we recently attended the 3rd Venue Security & Safety Summit, which tackled key themes like planning and preparing for the unexpected, preventing and protecting against internal and external threats, designing and applying real-time response procedures, as well as building risk management into business continuity and disaster recovery.

From profits to press to badly-need infrastructure projects, major events can bring any number of lasting benefits to organizers and host sites. Conversely, the risks of running a major event are acute and variegated. So too are the penalties for botching it: public opprobrium, reputational damage, possibly even legal challenge and regulatory blowback. For organizers, effective all-hazards planning is the only solution to help mitigate topline risk and keep attendees safe. But with so many variables involved in major-event management, it’s easy to ask, how to get started?