THE TORCHSTONE WATCH
THE TORCHSTONE WATCH
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TorchStone publishes The Watch to assist our readers in proactively managing risk—whether personal, professional, or organizational—in an increasingly insecure world. The featured articles, blog posts, and expert interviews address vulnerabilities and issues we have frequently encountered while safeguarding high profile individuals, wealthy families, multinational corporations, and international sporting events across six continents. Now, more than ever, security seems to be a precious commodity. Our goal is to give you more of it through The TorchStone Watch.
SPOTLIGHT ISSUE
Terrorism and the Democratization of Media
By TorchStone VP, Scott Stewart
Organized jihadist groups and White Supremacist groups have put a great deal of effort into propaganda and online recruitment. However, they are not alone in their ability to recruit and mobilize. The same factors that have allowed terrorist groups to become their own media have also permitted individual attackers to have an outsized influence in radicalizing and operationalizing others to their extremist causes. The democratization of the media—the rise of the internet and social media—has allowed individual terrorists to create their own propaganda.
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Leaderless Resistance and the Greater Threat
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 9/11 or the July 7, 2005, attacks in London. Certainly, self-initiated terrorists do pose a challenge to security services, but terrorists who adopt leaderless resistance are in fact admitting that it is simply too dangerous and difficult for them to operate in larger, organized groups.
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Four Workplace Violence Myths
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 in terms of workplace violence. Unfortunately, there are many false narratives that serve to hamper people’s ability to understand, and more importantly prevent or mitigate, the threat posed by workplace violence.
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Security Concerns for Returning to the Office in the COVID-19 Environment
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, long-hauler symptoms of COVID-19, and other byproducts and tragedies of the pandemic. In order to best mitigate the risk of potential violence and to create a healthy, safe, and thriving environment, companies need to focus on supporting their employees, especially during this transition back to the office.
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How to Respond When Things Go Bad
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 supermarket in Boulder, CO, and a vehicular assault and knife attack at the U.S. Capitol. These events illustrate that bad things can happen nearly anywhere and at any time. People must thus recognize this harsh reality and be prepared to take action to protect themselves and those they love when things suddenly go bad.
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Premier Sports Network partners with TorchStone Global to protect athletes from rising security threats
Premier Sports Network is a private networking platform exclusively for sports professionals that ensures professional athletes receive needed support of their personal lives. Professional athletes around the globe and their families are increasingly targets of crime, racial attacks, or social media abuse. TorchStone Global’s partnering with PSN allows sports leagues to provide the highest quality protection for their players as well as full advantage of TorchStone’s extensive experience and proactive risk management approach.
READ MORE >TorchStone’s Scott Stewart’s work in the field of protective intelligence honored
Protective Intelligence Honors “men and women whose remarkable vision, insight, courage and leadership have kept countless lives safe and are influencing an industry shift to a proactive, always-on physical security approach in the public and private sectors.” — Fred Burton, Executive Director of the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence
READ MORE >Narcotica podcast discusses Mexico’s rise as a narco state with TorchStone’s Scott Stewart
During the height of the drug war’s surge under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Scott was assigned to protect a Colombian judge who had signed an arrest warrant for Pablo Escobar. In 1993 he traveled to Bogota to help the Colombian government investigate a car bombing at a school supply market. Scott provides boots-on-the-ground insight and analysis to America’s “forever war” on drugs.
READ MORE >Beijing braces for perfect storm of Olympic woes
Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games will take place not only under the shadow of Covid-19, but as the most politically charged Olympics since the 1936 Berlin Games in Nazi Germany. And under what circumstances can the Games even be held? Will they serve as a beacon of hope after two years of the worst pandemic the world has seen since 1918? This article takes a look at Beijing 2022’s prospects, security concerns, implications for major stakeholders, and risks associated with the event and beyond.
READ MORE >TorchStone’s Scott Stewart talks with Steve Olivas on his podcast “The Commute”
Scott Stewart, Vice President at TorchStone, was interviewed by Steve Olivas on his podcast “The Commute.” From the podcast’s promotional description: “Scott Stewart, former DSS agent and now corporate security expert, checks the bus for possible breeches in security this week. Really, really cool interview – lots of great info and an extremely articulate guest.
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