Educating a new class of freshmen about personal safety on campus requires a team effort and, often, an unconventional approach.
January 7, 2019
Every autumn, a new wave of young students floods onto college campuses, eager and excited for the next phase of their lives and ready to explore their newfound freedom. They are not always eager, however, to consider safety and security a top priority.
For all the hundreds of firewall rules and network protocols that your security staff may put in place to better safeguard your network, sometimes there’s simply no accounting for the most unpredictable variable of them all: human behavior. Whether it be through social engineering techniques, bad actors within your own organization, or simple human error, hackers around the world are trained on how to take advantage of a company’s employees and staff in order to gain access to a protected network.
We are all just a step away from being affected by a potential medical or security incident, whether in the workplace, while traveling on business or simply going about everyday life. The importance of new employee education, new traveler education or a refresher course on travel risk preparedness cannot be understated.
“Every once in a while I need to remind myself that security is a journey,” says Michael W. Wanik, CPP, CBCP, who is Senior Director, Corporate Security for United Therapeutics Corporation.
On June 28, Wendi Winters lost her life when a man shot her and some of her colleagues in the Capital Gazette newspaper office.
Yet, Winters is being hailed as a hero, according to some who witnessed and survived the shooting, because Winters reportedly fought the gunman, and “charged forward holding a trash can and recycling bin,” reported the Capital Gazette.
“The country’s come quite a long way. Fans now expect security, and it made me feel good that I could take my wife and daughter to a baseball game, spend a couple hundred dollars, and feel safe about it,” says Adam Stockwell, Vice President of Security for the Milwaukee Bucks.
I love technology. My college degree is in math. I enjoy solving problems using technology. I love its disruptive nature. It can force us to rethink the way we do things. It changes us; how we think of ourselves, our families, our work and our society. It provides hope to the crippled, opportunities for the poor and disenfranchised, and healing for our environment. Its potential is a two-sided blade. It can harm us or help us. It can be used for good or evil.
How would you feel if a thief rang your doorbell at home and said, “I want you to help me burglarize your home?” How would feel if a crook knocked on your door and said, “Will you look the other way while I steal your car and your kids’ bikes and rip out some of your shrubs?”