The Noggin Blog

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?

By now, we know the grizzly details of the March 15 terror attacks at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, the deadliest mass shooting incident in New Zealand history. All told, fifty people were killed, and scores injured at the hands of a self-described white supremacist.

A run-through of what happened

How prepared are organizations to tackle critical issues and major crises? That’s the question we at Noggin and our partner Deloitte have been posing to invited guests in our inaugural series of breakfast seminars, exploring the theme of overconfidence and crisis preparedness.

We’re just days out from the 3rd Venue Security & Safety Summit, set to be held this March 26 and 27 in Melbourne. The event brings leading security professionals together to discuss how the implementation of effective and practical strategies of prevention, preparation, response, and recovery helps ensure operational continuity and sustainability. And the best part is Noggin will be there, with an exhibitor’s table right in the thick of things.

Physical security incidents cause staggering levels of material damage and cost organizations big bucks. In the construction industry, for example, businesses lose between $300 million and $1 billion every year due to the theft of equipment and other high-value materials, according to data from the U.S. National Insurance Crime Bureau. 

In March 2018, the Australian Parliament passed the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. As you probably know, the Act majorly ramps up state scrutiny of so-called critical infrastructure assets (ports, as well as electricity, gas, and water entities), by attempting to improve cooperation and collaboration between government bodies and the owners and operators of those assets. To do so, the Act compels asset operators and owners to relay detailed operational information (as well as relevant updates) to a government authority.

Factors driving the push for critical infrastructure security reform in Australia

2018’s Security of Critical Infrastructure Act didn’t come out of a policy bubble. The fact is we live in a globalized world; cross-border trade is the norm. The benefits of high levels of integration to comparatively open economies like Australia have been obvious for some time now, specifically in the realm of foreign direct investment (FDI).

Government bureaucracies get a bit of a bum rap; too often, people perceive them as stodgy and resistant to change. But just like the majority of big private actors, federal governments around the world have undertaken pretty substantial digital transformation projects, adopting the latest in digital technology to make their processes and agencies more accessible to the people.