Corporate Security | TorchStone Global

Leaderless Resistance - TorchStone Global

Leaderless Resistance and the Greater Threat

Corporate SecurityJune 4, 2021

The bigger terrorist threat, or the most likely? On May 21, the UK’s Times Radio aired the first-ever public interview of Ken McCallum, the chief of Britain’s internal security agency, MI5. During the interview, McCallum remarked that his agency believes “self-initiated terrorists” pose a bigger threat to the UK than plots on the scale of…

Four Workplace Violence Myths

Corporate SecurityMay 14, 2021

Recent workplace shootings in Indianapolis, IN, Orange, CA, and Bryan TX, serve to highlight the persistent and pernicious problem of workplace violence in the United States. Last week, my colleagues Malique Carr and Howard Snyder discussed how the return to work after the COVID-19 pandemic will pose unique challenges on workplace security – and specifically…

Office Security Concerns - TorchStone Global

Security Concerns for Returning to the Office in the COVID-19 Environment

Corporate SecurityMay 7, 2021

Businesses will have to work hard to maintain a safe, healthy, and secure workplace, as employees—consciously or unconsciously—will carry the emotional stress and human loss of the pandemic back into the workplace with them. Many office workers have experienced trauma, loss, and stress by the death of loved ones, substance abuse, domestic violence, financial strain,…

How to Respond When Things Go Bad

Corporate SecurityApril 19, 2021

A man with a rifle burst through the door at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis late in the evening of April 15, killing eight and wounding several others before taking his own life. The shooting comes on the heels of a school shooting in Knoxville, a workplace shooting in Bryan, TX, a shooting at a…

Executive Protection Professional - TorchStone Global

Differences Between Executive Protection Professionals and “Bodyguards”

Corporate Security, TorchStone TeamApril 12, 2021

More than physical prowess, effective executive protection is really about the mental strengths of the agents. It is these mental aspects of protection that separate executive protection professionals from “bodyguards,” who are often poorly trained and over-rely on physical force. While executive protection professionals must be physically skilled, it is their critical thinking resulting in…

D.C. Mansion Murders - TorchStone Global

Protective Intelligence Case Study: The D.C. Mansion Murders

Corporate SecurityApril 5, 2021

On the afternoon of May 14, 2015, the Washington, D.C., Fire Department was called to respond to a fire at a large brick home in the city’s upscale Woodley Park neighborhood. As firefighters battled the flames, they discovered the bodies of three adults and a child inside the home. However, as firefighters pulled the bodies…

Understanding and Responding to Risk

Corporate Security, Traveling AbroadMarch 22, 2021

Everything an organization does or does not do brings a risk. It is impossible, and one should not try, to avoid every potential risk. Instead, when senior leadership embraces the concept that risk is unavoidable and clearly delineates a risk policy, it provides every stakeholder with a single point of reference to gauge and manage…

Don’t Overlook the Threat Posed by Bugs

Corporate SecurityMarch 11, 2021

While a lot of attention and budget is currently being devoted to cybersecurity—and justly so—cyberattacks are just one of the tools in the arsenal of sophisticated criminal or espionage actors. There is simply some information that hackers can’t access. Threat actors may have to employ other tools in place of, or in addition to, cyberattacks.…

Reporting Bombmaking Activity Can Save Lives

Corporate SecurityMarch 1, 2021

Amateur bomb makers who have not received any training typically progress along a learning curve, becoming more proficient at their deadly craft as they become more experienced and learn from past failures. Even when a person plotting an attack has some bombmaking ability, they are still vulnerable while attempting to acquire explosives or chemicals for…

Detecting Hostile Surveillance

Corporate SecurityFebruary 16, 2021

Attacks and other crimes don’t just appear out of a vacuum. They are the result of the attack cycle and the pathway to violence, and those planning crimes are vulnerable to detection as they progress through these processes. The activity that most exposes hostile actors to detection is surveillance, and every criminal act involves some…

Avoiding the Deadly “Oh-Oh loop” with OODA

Corporate SecurityFebruary 8, 2021

The process of consciously observing, orienting, deciding, and acting—the OODA Loop—creates links between an awareness of one’s surroundings in a dangerous situation and the actions necessary to escape it by staying one step ahead of an adversary. Because of this, I consider OODA to be the bridge that connects situational awareness with action.

The Enemies of Situational Awareness

Corporate SecurityFebruary 1, 2021

As I wrote a few weeks ago, situational awareness is simply paying attention to what is happening in the environment around you in an effort to identify and avoid potential threats and dangerous situations. As such, situational awareness is really more of a mindset than it is a highly refined skill. It is not some…