In this issue:
Bombs and Bombings: A Handbook to Detection, Disposal and Investigation for Police and Fire Departments, Second Edition
Electronic Surveillance Devices
Guidelines for Cargo Security and Loss Control: How to Maximize Cargo Security on Land, Air, and Sea
The Shattered Workplace & You
Protecting Business Information: A Manager's Guide
Bombs and Bombings: A Handbook to Detection, Disposal and Investigation for Police and Fire Departments, Second Edition. By Thomas Graham Brodie; published by Charles C. Thomas, 800/258-8980 (phone), 217/789-9130 (fax); 276 pages; $39.95.
This instructive work not only takes the reader through a variety of processes in dealing with bombs, but it also serves as a tribute to the career experiences of author Thomas Brodie, a retired captain of the Metro Dade (Florida) Police Department who has disposed of thousands of bombs and investigated hundreds of explosions. Filled with information and photographs culled from Brodie's rich career, this text would equally serve the experienced security practitioner and the novice.
Topics covered include bomb disposal, training, equipment, bomb types and characteristics, search operations, investigations, and bomb protection. The several checklists included, such as one on bomb disposal procedures, are a valuable resource for security planners.
Brodie's work delves into the characteristics of explosives, containers, and devices. It also explores how bombs are delivered and how they explode. Though a somewhat dry and technical how-to manual, the book is punctuated with enough lists, charts, and photographs to make it an easy read. Every aspect of bombs and bombings is covered and, where more material may be needed on specific topics, resources are listed.
It is critical for all security professionals charged with emergency response to be constantly prepared, and Brodie stresses training and other precautionary measures throughout this work. He takes the reader through a history of training development and provides resources related to the current standard.
To effectively deal with bombs and bombings, it is important to take the mystery out of them. Brodie accomplishes that task through plain language. This book is the first step in ensuring preparedness for bombings and bomb threats. It will help any security professional ensure that his or her bomb threat plan is complete.
Reviewer: John Baillargeon, CPP, is the manager of security operations for Metropol Security in Toronto. He has extensive experience in developing policies, procedures, and programs to deal with bomb threats. He is a member of ASIS.
Electronic Surveillance Devices. By Paul Brookes; published by Butterworth-Heinemann, 800/366-BOOK (phone), 800/446-6520 (fax); 112 pages; $29.95.
For security professionals and electronic hobbyists interested in building electronic surveillance and countermeasure equipment, this book provides detailed schematic diagrams and construction information. The author effectively compiles technical information that would allow a reader with moderate knowledge to assemble rudimentary devices. While countermeasures are covered, however, the author focuses on the "offensive" uses of surveillance. What is more, although the book is informative and
the author clearly knows his stuff, much of the information is available elsewhere and cannot truly be considered state of the art.
The book covers traditional surveillance devices at the expense of current technological issues such as cellular telephone interception or fax transmission interception. While the author discusses some CCTV issues, he never addresses issues relevant to new or emerging security technologies, such as the increasingly popular CCTV systems that allow installation of a camera anywhere there is access to a telephone line or a cellular phone.
While the book's information will help build a solid foundation for those interested in traditional technologies, a forward-looking approach would have improved it vastly.
Reviewer: David W. McCoy, CPP, is a security professional with Lockheed Martin Vought Systems of Dallas. He is a member of ASIS.
Guidelines for Cargo Security and Loss Control: How to Maximize Cargo Security on Land, Air, and Sea. Published by the National Cargo Security Council, 703/821-7725 (phone), 703/821-7789 (fax);www.clark.net/pub/ncsc.html; 147 pages; $20.
Concise, well-written, and easy to understand, this latest revision of Guidelines for Cargo Security and Loss Control is a fine reference book for cargo security professionals and terminal management. It will also help shipper and consignee judge a transportation company's efforts to secure goods in transit.
Each of the eight chapters and four appendices is organized so that all levels of readers can get what they need from it. The outline approach offers a roadmap to subject matter of interest. For example, the book makes it easy to learn quickly about such topics as the vulnerability of cargo, the dynamics of the shipping industry, and the various ways freight in transit can be attacked. Readers unfamiliar with rail, air freight, or container operations will receive a primer on those topics.
Although it omits some detail at times, the guide provides a good basis for establishing or modifying a cargo security program, exploring issues such as barrier seal selection, sentry dog use, and cargo loss reporting. The book is probably best used by cargo security professionals as a checklist to ensure that facilities in their charge are complying with industry standards. An excerpt is available online in the Reading Room.
Reviewer: Michael E. Kozak is manager, corporate security services, Consolidated Freightways, Inc., Lemont, Illinois. He is the chairman of the Trucking Subcommittee of the ASIS Standing Committee on Transportation Security.
The Shattered Workplace & You. Produced by Media Concepts, Inc.; available from The Information Source, 800/971-2447 (phone), 800/866-4875 (fax); 23-minute videotape, 30-minute audiotape, and 94-page guide; $195. (Editor's note: The audiotape and book became available after the release of the videotape and were not considered in this review.)
How much more can be said about workplace violence with the glut of material on the market? Enough, actually, to produce this entertaining and informative video: a docudrama-style primer suitable for creating security awareness among corporate personnel and for helping management banish threats, violence, and harassment.
Citing the National Safe Workplace Institute and the FBI recognition and risk criteria, the video enables the security novice to identify problem employees and put a systematic solution in place. The video updates the traditional advisory triumvirate of doctor, lawyer, and clergyman by replacing the pastor with a policeman and adding a workplace violence consultant to the mix. The experts pool their wisdom to help the viewer develop measures to identify, prevent, and contain violence, liability, and costs.
For example, attorney Sandra Fanning explains in concise layman's language how companies can limit liability for negligent hiring and negligent retention. Besides well-known measures such as antiviolence programs, she advocates preemptive techniques such as securing temporary restraining orders from local courts. This measure provides the prospective perpetrator with a forum to vent his or her concerns. It also drives home the gravity of the situation to the employee and staff.
The video focuses on larger corporations. For example, the producers suggest that businesses establish an antiviolence committee containing eight members--including a public relations specialist, a clinical psychologist, and a safety and health specialist--several of which smaller businesses couldn't afford to retain. But smaller companies may be able to adopt some of these ideas in a modified format--consolidating some positions and buying high-priced expertise on a per diem basis through contract services.
Corporate executives and security neophytes alike should view this video for an overview of workplace violence. The video also serves as an excellent refresher for security professionals and as a top-notch training tool.
Reviewer: John T. Brophy is an attorney and the owner of Brophy and Associates, an investigative and security consulting firm in Walnut Creek, California. He has extensive experience in preventing and dealing with workplace violence. He is a member of ASIS.
Protecting Business Information: A Manager's Guide. By James A. Schweitzer; published by Butterworth-Heinemann; available from ASIS, 703/522-5800 (phone), 703/525-2694 (fax); 199 pages; $35 (ASIS members), $38 (nonmembers).
In an era of fierce corporate competition, diminishing employee loyalty, and widespread computer use, information protection is more critical than ever. Using case examples, this book convincingly makes that argument and sets out methods and management techniques to help an organization establish and maintain an effective information security program.
Be it through an imprudent utterance, an unprotected network, or a sloppy filing system, valuable information can leak out in an infinite variety of ways, as author James Schweitzer makes clear. In one case, for example, an engineer drew ideas for a critical machinery component on a tablecloth in a restaurant. Another customer, seeking that information, bought the tablecloth from the restaurant owner.
Schweitzer analyzes the types of threats and the levels of vulnerabilities, from the high-tech (hacker attacks) to the no-tech (employee chitchat). Another helpful chapter discusses establishing proprietary rights to information through trade secrets, copyrights, and patents. The reader also learns how to classify levels of information.
Additional chapters deal with the threat posed by copiers, fax machines, and other office equipment and the vulnerability of communication applications such as electronic data interchanges. With the proliferation of pagers and cellular phones, however, the author might have addressed information exposures created by these devices.
In less than 200 pages, the author succeeds in defining the problem of information insecurity and arming the reader with the tools to get an information protection program going. The book serves not only security managers seeking to establish such a program but also those who want to put their own to the test.
Reviewer: Daniel L. Hoppe, Jr., is corporate loss prevention manager for Dominick's Finer Foods, Inc., Northlake, Illinois. He has many years of experience in information protection. He is a member of ASIS.