Gary Johnson is much more than Director of Security for the Pojoaque Valley School District in New Mexico. He’s in charge of safety and security, transportation and more, but his most important role is supporter, with this role becoming even more prominent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a centralized place for intelligence and information, the NFL’s GSOC, led by Director of Intelligence Operations Robert Gummer, played a pivotal role in the League’s pandemic response, streamlining access and infection control, updating business continuity plans, and providing relevant data to enable all stakeholders to make informed decisions.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Victims of Crime, workplace homicides declined between 1995 and 2015. Yet workplace homicides are not the most common form of workplace violence — simple assault is. Simple assault is defined by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) as an attack without a weapon that results in no injuries or minor injuries (e.g., cuts, scratches, black eyes), or any injury requiring fewer than two days in the hospital.

Anyone with access to your organization — employee, contractor, former employee, etc. — poses a potential risk to the enterprise. So, what is insider threat; who should own an insider risk mitigation program within the enterprise; and most importantly, how can security leaders assess and mitigate the risk?

MultiCare Health System based in Washington State has begun a journey of unifying its video surveillance management and access control under one platform, yielding better situational awareness, streamlining investigations and providing an additional level of safety and security to staff and patients alike.

ADM and its security team, including Kevin Wujek, Insider Threat Coordinator, tapped into existing data, both inside the company and publicly available, to enable informed decision-making and real-time insight into the company’s COVID-19 pandemic response plan including contact tracing, location insight and information, and facility occupancy.

Steven Seiden, president of Acquired Data Solutions (ADS), has been involved in “digital divide issues” for more than 20 years, and he believes broadening inclusion and diversity in the STEM literacy field is one of his purposes. An engineer by trade, Seiden has experienced a shift in the tech world over the years, watching the convergence of technology, IT and IOT and noting the ever-expanding engineering lifecycle that now includes security.

From the onset of the pandemic, Sanofi’s North America Security Operations & Technology team has worked across the enterprise to provide critical in-house applications and communications to departments and leaders, be on the frontlines of on-location response efforts, ensuring operational continuity, as well as the safety and security of the company’s staff and assets.

Boeing took a project management approach to its comprehensive, unified COVID-19 pandemic response co-led by the organization’s Security & Fire Protection and Health Services business units. Putting communication and actionable data at the forefront, the organization made informed decisions to minimize operational disruption and ensure the safety of its employees including site suspensions, COVID-19 specific protocols, PPE distribution and more.