Public Service Review: A matter of national security

The Coalition's handling of the spending cuts to the economy is impacting security differently across departments, argues ADS Security Policy Adviser Hugo Rosemont

How the current state of the economy impacts national security remains an important question due to the surprising lack of attention given to it. However, it is a crucial consideration, and the Coalition Government believes that 'an economic deficit is also a security deficit'.

Contrary to some perceptions, there have been significant levels of new investment in the UK security market during the current period of deficit reduction. For example, in a survey published in October 2011, ADS revealed that its members completed £1.8bn worth of security business in the UK during 2010. In addition, there has been significant growth in the global security market; it is currently worth about £260bn per annum and is estimated to grow to £337bn by 2015.

It is worth remembering, however, that the UK security market comprises purchasers from both public and private sectors. Public sector customers account for a large proportion of sales, and the effect that the economic conditions are having on UK government departments' abilities to invest in national security capabilities, especially in the context of deficit reduction, must be examined.

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Source: ADS Group 09/01/12

Mike O'Neill Interview: SIA, CPO Licensing, London Olympics Security

You can download the
 interview here

David Rubens latest column in Combat & Survival is a double-page interview with Mike O'Neill, Chairman of the Close Protection division of the BSIA, and a well-known figure throughout the UK security industry through his activities with Greyman's and, more recently, Optimal Risk. 

Mike talks about topics of interest such as the latest news on SIA licensing, the future role of CPO's in the UK security sector, the London Olympics and a few thoughts on the future of top-end security providers in an economic recession. 

David is a well known figure within the security industry and his bio is shown below:

David Rubens Associates founding director, holds an MSc in Security and Risk Management from Scarman Centre, Leicester University, is a Visiting Lecturer on their Global Security and Policing MSc programme, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Security and Resilience Department, Cranfield University at the UK Defence Academy, specialising in Terrorism & Public Policy and Strategic Management & Leadership. David is widely experienced at developing, delivering and managing large-scale strategic security development programmes, and has worked with government agencies and academic institutions in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

Updated 4/1/12 - The MPS launches first ever dedicated unit to tackle metal theft

Update 4/1/12 - Church metal theft cases reach record high in 2011 via the BBC


Update 23/12/11 - News article in the Telegraph "Insurers urge radical security rethink following metal sculpture theft". 

The MPS is launching its first ever dedicated unit to tackle metal theft - a spiralling problem which is costing the economy an estimated £700 million a year and causing the deaths of two offenders a month in the UK, according to the most recent research.

The new multi-agency Waste and Metal Theft Taskforce, whose team includes experts from BT and the local authority's environmental crime unit, is based in Bexley, one of the boroughs most severely affected by metal theft due to its high number of scrap metal yards.

In the first two weeks of December officers across the Met carried out a total of 275 inspections and searches of scrap metal dealer yards, arrested 15 people for offences ranging from burglary to transporting waste metal illegally without a licence, and seized 16 vehicles.

Whilst the task force is a good idea, why do we always have to rely on law enforcement? Shouldn't we be making it more difficult for stolen goods to be sold to 'dodgy scrap yards', or stopping cash sales or even asking for proof of ID from sellers? 

The new task force will be busy...this is the recently 
stolen Barbara Hepworth sculpture (worth £500k)

Looking Back, Looking Forward - The Security Highs and Lows of 2011

So what happened last year? Well apart from it flying past, for us at Chatback Security it has been a great 2011. We successfully continued our efforts to offer opinions on security risks and threats and have now built up a steady readership and loyal following.

January was kicked off with a promise for us to be more active on the blog and introduce Fraud and other topics. This proved succesful in 2012:

7000 blog readers (55% up on 2010)

3500 unique visitors

4000 tweets via @securityspeak and @chatbacksy

2500 twitter followers

Readers from over over 50 countries

February saw scam awareness month and we also received a couple of emails asking for us to claim our lottery winnings, all we had to do was supply our bank details apparently?! It’s amazing how email addresses get identified by scammers for this type of contact (its even more amazing that people fall for these scams). 

The MPS kicked off a new counter terror publicity campaign asking for people to look out for unusual activity or behaviours that might strike people as not quite right and out of place in their normal day to day. Just one piece of information could be vital in helping to disrupt terrorist planning and, in turn, save lives. If you see it, report it.

March saw us talk about the HOSDB INSTINCT exhibition which considering this exhibition is designed largely for law enforcement and government agencies was actually quite interesting and food for thought when considering the future applications that could find there way in to our airports and hopefully other environments. 

The ‘Insider Threat’ came all too true with a British Airways software engineer being sent down for 30 years after being convicted for plotting to blow up a plane. This particular topic is close to our hearts and seems to have fallen off organisations radars a bit and it's not being discussed as much as it should be. 

April was the month that the Centre for Protection National Infrastructure (CPNI) released a 'Public Realm Integration' document which although it looked like it had been designed by Saatchi & Saatchi it still offers some very good information about when and what you should consider when deploying any Hostile Vehicle Mitigation in the public realm.


May brought us our 1 year celebration of the blog and the introduction of the Stuxnet, the Future of Malware posting.

Paul celebrated our first year with a posting on Insider Threats.

June saw me and Paul enter and successfully complete the 26 mile London Bikeathon in support of a charity close to both our hearts ‘Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research'. We were very kindly supported and sponsored by our new friend in the US Brad Apitz (please follow him at @BradCHSV) who helped us raise over £500 in sponsorship. Thanks again Brad. 

I presented at The 8^th Annual CISO Summit in Rome which was attended by a very experienced audience. I must have done ok because the organisers invited me to speak and chair a panel on social mediasecurity risks at the CSO later in the year. I have a lot of time for MIS Training and will be sharing more news, events and speaking opportunities throughout the forth coming year, so keep an eye on our events page. 

Towards the end of June we both attended The Security Institute’s Annual Conference.  

June also saw the introduction of The National Security Workers Union (NSWU) in the UK.

July saw a couple of guest bloggers posts and the Home Secretary Theresa May announced the terror threat level for the UK has been reduced from severe to substantial. However, a terrorist attack still remains a strong possibility and may well occur without further warning, she went on to warn. Mrs May said: "The change in the threat level to substantial does not mean the overall threat has gone away - there remains a real and serious threat against the United Kingdom and I would ask the public to remain vigilant." January 2012 we remain at ‘substantial’.

August we took leave and you do not want to know where or what we did because that is boring.

September saw us post a summary of the GMB report on From Workplace Watch To Social Spy: Surveillance In (and by) The Workplace.

October brought us National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (NIDFPW), which over the last seven years has helped consumers and businesses alike to fight identity fraud. NIDFPW brings together partners from both the public and private sector to contribute their resources and experiences to help UK businesses and consumers protect themselves against identity fraud. Research commissioned by Fellowes for the campaign has shown that consumer confidence is at an all time low, with 96% of people concerned that the organisations they deal with aren’t treating their data responsibly.

November saw the UK government announce The New Cyber Security Strategy, I attended the Chief Security Officer (CSO) Summit in London where I presented on Security Assurance and chaired a panel session on social media security risks and it was also Get Safe Online Week 2011 (7th - 11th November 2011) What is Get Safe Online Week? Well if you missed it, it’s an annual event to raise awareness of internet safety issues. They reach out to consumers and small businesses through competitions, events and communications activity and to businesses and organisations through their annual Get Safe Online Summit to find out the latest updates or join us and follow them on Twitter @GetSafeOnline for all the latest news. Finally Chatback Security was approached after being recognised as known and influential security bloggers (get us) to participate in the Cyber security Challenge UK 2012 as journalists.  Watch this space we will be talking all about it.

December saw the MPS launch a dedicated police unit to tackle Metal theft, Anonymous were at play again, attacking Stratfor (the website is still offline) and my son’s first published photos to support the 4x4 crime prevention posting by Paul. Our recent posting by Infosec Island was posted at the end of December and still worth a read on security risk management and it’s not all about assessment.

Happy New Year.... 2012 is here so what does it hold for us personally and professionally. Well firstly, more of the same but different, if that makes sense. The year starts with us attending the first round of the Cyber Security Challenge UK. The first 5 months see me being invited to speak at the Information Security Executive Summit in Richmond, UK, Counter Terror Expo in London, CISO Summit 2012 in Prague and the Fraud Corruption Africa Summit in Zanzibar and then of course is the Olympics, London 2012.  


Some of the threats and risks on the horizon that are going to require some effort in combating are:

• Continued trend in metal theft (cabling, ornate statues, church roofs etc), hopefully some change in legislation also around the selling/buying of scrap metal
• Protection of our critical infrastructure (in paricular SCADA systems)
• Hackivism 
• Insider threats
• Olympics (surprise surprise) 
• Under valuing physical security measures (?too much focus on cyber threats maybe)
• Large scale scams and frauds 
• Recruitment of the right security people at the right time

We seek to enhance our relationships with @GetSafeOnline and London Fraud Forum (LFF) and Paul will continue with his work in the Security Institute whilst I intend to work closer with London First who kindly invited us to seminars and events on the Olympics and Cyber Crime.

We are always looking for new areas of interest and guest bloggers or supporters, if you feel we (or you) can contribute to your ideas please let us know via chatbacksecurity@gmail.com or contact either of us direct via LinkedIn (Richard or Paul).  

In the meantime we wish you a very safe, secure and prosperous Olympic new year and look forward to staying in contact with all our friends and supporters. 

Thanks and enjoy. Richard