Posts By: Jacob Charles

Nato rebooted

Anthony Tucker-Jones reports on a reinvigorated alliance forced to confront Russian expansionism and Islamic militants   President Obma came away from September’s Nato Summit in Wales saying, “I leave here confident that Nato allies and partners are prepared to join in a broad, international effort to combat the threat posed by the Islamic State of… Read more »

Bugs, espionage and the insider threat

Tony Kingham examines the how cheap, widely available covert surveillance technology is making corporate espionage by employees an increasingly urgent threat   Many agencies now regard the ‘insider threat’ as the most dangerous threat to the security of government organisations and corporations, and it’s not hard to see why. The proliferation of cheap, sophisticated GSM… Read more »

Sonar security

Konrad Mech discusses how advances in multimode multi-beam sonar technology are helping to protect ports and shipping from underwater terrorist and criminal threats   Underwater attacks on ports and ships have been a risk since before the Second World War. Today, waterborne attacks continue to threaten ships, high value assets and piers, which are vulnerable… Read more »

One step ahead?

In an industry shaped by the 2010 attempted “printer cartridge” bombing, Frederic Brouiller asks whether air cargo security detection equipment is keeping ahead of security threats   Air cargo is essential to global sourcing, manufacturing and assembling and, without secure distribution, countries would suffer economically. But the combination of increased terror threat and criminal activity… Read more »

The Gaza split

British foreign policy over the latest Israel-Gaza conflict is a shambles and has split the government, reports Anthony Tucker-Jones This summer Gaza found itself victim to yet another Israeli military invasion. It is the third major military operation in Gaza in six years. The situation underlines the terrible human cost, to both sides, of the… Read more »

MANPADS: the threat below

Following the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 17 over Ukraine, James Milnes argues we must not forget the wider terrorist threat to commercial aviation from shoulder-launched missile systems   Following the tragic downing of over Ukraine, the spectre of civilian aircraft being “shot out of the sky” has been brought sharply into focus. While… Read more »

Upgrading tactical comms

As Special Forces and security personnel operating in hostile territory struggle to find secure, reliable tactical communications systems, Giles Peeters argues short burst data may be the answer   As Islamic State fighters move through Iraq, militants retain a stranglehold on eastern Ukraine and al-Qaeda continues its guerrilla warfare in Yemen, the age of the… Read more »

Wargames

Following a series of revelations that Russian troops and ordnance are openly in play alongside the Eastern Ukrainian rebels, John Chisholm asks how far the Kremlin is willing to go to secure its near-abroad   It is now clear that Russia has, for all intents and purposes, invaded Ukraine in support of the rebels. Either… Read more »

Cracking drug data

Paul Stokes examines how advanced crime analytics tools can be used by the police and security services to effectively investigate and disrupt drug trafficking networks   Amphetamine-based drugs are becoming increasingly accessible to the public, partly driven by simple and flexible manufacturing techniques, readily available raw materials, high profit margins for producers and low consumer… Read more »

Hardening physical CNI protection

Michael Miles considers the role of physical access protection, including its growing integration with access control, as part of the security mix for CNI, but warns product performance claims must be approached with care   Advances at the high-tech end of security, in areas such as biometrics, cyber security and IP video surveillance, tend to… Read more »