Info Management

There has been a shift in the info management (IM) of business and organizations in the last few years to become a function of (either superior to or subordinate to) the IT side of things. Indeed, the creation of IM Managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) is the new sexy in hiring.

Unfortunately, this has taken a significant bite out of security managers and executives power, and in fact has left them holding the less sexy physical security bag, which has become woefully neglected.

The biggest problem with creating a second and third avenue of security responsibility in an organization is that it creates a fragmented approach where each department (2-3 of them) each try and secure their respective castles, with often only a thread of connectivity in the form of a corporate security policy which was likely not created to effectively coordinate separate departments.

The next biggest problem is that major resources tend to go to the sexy side (IT/IM), and the scraps are left to physical. This means that on top of the IT and IM folks likely enjoying the attention of the executive suite more than the physical guy, they also get the bulk of funds and resources and ignore the significant role physical lapses can result in which make IT and IM irrelevant.

Case in point. Super strong network security and a perfectly synchronized access plan (which never occurs by the way) will be easily outmanoeuvred by someone picking through the garbage, talking to staff after work or digging up some dirt and doing an old fashioned intelligence recruitment.

There has to be more to the IM and IT planning than just having strong capabilities in network security and managed information flows. The old fashioned approach of physical security should be the driving force still in the current security model, as things haven't actually changed, even though the pedlars of these systems may claim otherwise.

The most effective security model then is one which is drawn up by one sole security source (usually being the physical security guy), which then incorporates how information will be managed from physical to electronic and back to physical mediums. This will ensure unity of effort, reduced costs in terms of security staff, better understanding of the overall security picture by personnel and a more effective plan overall.

Blog courtesy of Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, which is a security and investigations agency in Ottawa, Canada. They are located on the web at www.elementalpi.ca 

Security Surveys

Security Surveys are a handy tool to assess the effectiveness of a security plan/system.

Contrary to some perceptions, security needs to be continuously reviewed and adapted to the changing environment, or else it risks becoming out of date and irrelevant.

The security survey should always be performed by a neutral third party, which ensures that corporate group think and egos stay out of the way of properly assessing the effectiveness of your security. The survey will look at things like current practices, how they are understood and are being followed by staff, technology changes, attitudes to the organization, threats to the industry and any other factor which could conceivably impact the security of your organization or operation.

This will allow managers and executives to look at the various weak points in a security plan and determine whether or not they will mitigate the issue or deal with it head on. It will also help assign resources to more effective areas, which can ease resource demands and even save some cash.

The security survey should be performed yearly for security sensitive organizations, and every 3-5 years for other organizations to keep them effective. These should be paired to the Threat Risk Assessments for your organization as well to give the most effective and comprehensive security picture of your organization to keep your staff and assets as secure as possible.

Blog content provided by Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, which is a security and investigations agency operating out of Edmonton Canada.

Threat Risk Assessments

Threat Risk Assessments (TRAs) are a well known function in the security world, but often confused in the real world. Largely, I see TRAs associated to IT functions and information management (IM), and not a part of the whole security ecosystem of a business or organization.

This is unfortunate and is largely representative of the sad state of security planning as the TRA should overarch the IT/IM segment of a business and force it to conform to the security plan of the larger organization, rather than be treated as a separate issue.

The TRA is an analysis of the threats faced by an organization or business. This looks at all threats and threat vectors, including online, physical, financial, legal, etc. It then makes a determination of the likelihood of occurring given the current state of the world and the current security capabilities of the client organization. Lastly, it makes an assessment of the degree of harm to the organization should an attack occur.

Essentially, a TRA will allow you to understand what you should be most concerned about which will allow you to use security resources to their best potential, which has the added benefit of saving you money. How? Well, when you go direct to a security company, they will inevitably want to sell you the cadillac of security services. Nothing wrong with that and it is expected, but without actually knowing about your security threats and your own footing, you may buy the Cadillac when you only need the Hyundai and a little knowledge of how to mitigate your threats.

Many individuals offer TRA services, and you should always look to obtain the TRA from someone who is not aligned with the security systems provider. This will ensure you are getting the best information on what you need to protect before you look at the shiny gadgets to buy at a premium.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Insurance Fraud

Insurance fraud hurts us all is the sad refrain of insurance companies and while most people tend to view these companies as organizations which are largely unworthy of sympathy, it really does hit everyone in the pocket book, and not just the big insurance companies in the form of higher premiums and stricter guidelines.

Insurance fraud really exists everywhere insurance itself exists, after all, one usually needs to prove only harm or loss and they can get a cheque cut to them. The fraud types are varied across these spectrums, from the slip scam in the grocery store, to the rear end scam where someone is goaded into running into the rear of another car, to the workers insurance scam where a false claim of workplace injury is presented.

These examples are but a tiny tip of the iceberg, but they show the prevalence of them as we all know exactly how these scams work, yet they still persist and remain effective ways of scamming the system.

Largely it is the insurance company which will launch an investigation as it balances the need to find out what happened with the costs of litigation or settling. This is happening a bit more now days as the previous policies of settling rather than fighting claims in court has largely failed as the claims were not only paid out, but encouraged scammers to put in more claims as they knew they would not be challenged. Private individuals and companies have also begun doing their own investigations as well though, as organizations such as workers compensation, which are often government run or managed tend to be overloaded with cases and cannot respond effectively to all claims needing investigation.

When this occurs, Private Investigators (PIs) have always been the go to folks to look into these scams and present evidence as to the actual state of the individual making claims. Surveillance, history and interviews all come into the investigative process to give the interested parties the information needed to assess whether or not a false claim has been made, then pursue it in court.

Call a local PI today to find out what kind of services they can provide you!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Identity Theft

With increased collection of online data, coupled with ever increasing interactions by individuals online, the potential for identity theft has also increased. These new interactions and data storage make it easier to obtain someone else's personal information, and more importantly, allow for rapid deployment of damaging methods across a wide spectrum with the added benefit of making it much more difficult to prosecute an issue.

In the old days, identity theft still occurred, however basic logical issues such as location, physical presence and direct human monitoring made it more difficult for someone to get away with something for long, and simple data manipulation was not sufficient alone to fool safeguards. For example, if you were a senior citizen and went into a bank to get a mortgage, the banker would expect to see a senior citizen in the correct town or city, asking for things generally in line with expectations. If something seemed off, added scrutiny would kick in.

Nowadays, the theft of personal information and the automation of many things makes the theft and quick exploitation of that data child's play by comparison. The most common form of identity theft is based on financial theft, where the data is used to either exploit existing financing such as credit cards, lines of credit and bank accounts, or to establish new forms of credit , relying on general good credit to obtain what can be created. These schemes are set up to run across international boundaries, making the tracing of material to make arrests that much more difficult. They are also set up to scoop up large amounts of info, use them for their intended purpose of extracting whatever real money possible, then dumping the identity for the next, maximizing profit while minimizing risk.

The other popular form of identity theft (albeit a distant second in terms of usage), is the targeted form of identity theft. This form can be significantly more damaging to an individual as malice is the motivating factor as opposed to financial gain. This type of identity theft can also focus not just on financial (and often ignores financial completely), but will focus on social and online interactions to discredit an individual's reputation and relationships.

Tracing identity theft can be a complex and expensive affair. Law enforcement may be able to conduct an investigation, but due to limited resources, they will normally only be able to look into severe or referred cases without investigation ahead of time. This is where a private investigator can come in and provide consulting assistance, and conduct the investigation to usually stop, and in some cases bring down those responsible. Give a local PI a call to see how they can help out!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Elderly Welfare

Taking care of our parents when they age and require assistance is a great responsibility, which comes with all sorts of difficulties. Sharing the workload with other family, paying a commercial facility or using Government resources to help care for parents are a few of the main issues. Add to this degrading cognitive abilities and you begin to appreciate how hard it can be to take care of your parents in their twilight years.

Sometimes, adding to these normal difficulties, comes the added burden of abuse, physically and mentally, as well as a high instance of fraud and theft.

These problems are normally associated to family members as the most common perpetrators of abuse and theft of the elderly, as it is with children as well. Sadly, many families do not realize the abuse until it is too late, either due to the perpetrator having trusted access to the parent, or by refusing to see the signs of abuse. The parent conversely cannot speak up, either due to mental or physical disability or due to fear instilled by the caretaker committing these crimes.

Additionally, we see increased victimization at care facilities, where caseworkers see opportunity and use it to steal goods, or use abusive measures in perverted means to discipline the patients. New in the news but not reality, is the increasing focus on patient on patient violence which can occur in situations with dementia patients which can cause great harm to loved ones who are supposed to be safe in the confines of the care facility.

These cases can be difficult to initiate, particularly as the investigation will undoubtedly focus on the family at some point, but the process itself is usually solvable in a relatively short period once the investigation has commenced, providing you with the evidence needed to pursue litigation or criminal actions.

Call a local private investigator to see how they can help, or just to bounce some ideas off of them on your best course of action.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Surveillance Investigations

Surveillance investigations are one of the most effective means of establishing fact. Most other methods can be subject to error, but when something is seen and documented by an investigator, it becomes hard to refute evidence when conducted properly.

While surveillance and private investigators tends to conjure up images of a PI in a car waiting for a couple to leave a hotel on their way back to their respective spouses, the reality is that surveillance is useful in a wide variety of case types. Some of these include competitive intelligence, counter-intelligence, harassment, vandalism, fraud and employee misconduct issues.

Hiring a surveillance investigator should be fairly simple as surveillance is ultimately a basic investigator skill, however you should always look out for false claims as surveillance is very much an art and not a science, meaning that there are many variables which impact the success of a surveillance, and chief among those variables is that you are waiting for a subject to act in a specific manner, which Murphy's Law dictates won't happen right away once the subject is observed.

Despite the unpredictable nature of surveillance, it remains one of the most powerful tools in a PI's toolbox. Contact a local PI to ask how they can help you!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca