Security – Some of the Most Dangerous People Around?

It’s something that most people think little about. It’s something that corporations and companies think little about, and it’s something that is very dangerous to overlook.

What is it? It’s unhappy security professionals. Perhaps one of the most dangerous group of people in the world right now are security professionals, and it’s not a small group at all. Counting only one of the four or five largest security companies in the world today takes us to half a million people with extensive knowledge of alarm systems, safety and security routines and procedures, locations where massive values are stored, names of people in power and privilege, their addresses and their habits, access to corporation and government locations after hours, unsupervised (and don’t get me started on so called supervisors) and trusted to do only what they are supposed to.

This only covers the regular guard services, by the way. We’re not taking into account integrated security officers, working for transport companies, IT companies, retail chains, manufacturers and so on and so forth. These are perhaps more dangerous to single companies, but could, with some preparation, take down the largest companies in today’s economy if the urge came over them.

It’s something that is more than a little scary, and there’s a good chance it might happen at any time, but it’s still something that company CEOs give little consideration, seeing that security is generally not prioritized, under paid and carries, in many cases, a rather less than good reputation.

We’ll run a little scenario.

The responsible security officer for one of the world’s largest transportation and delivery companies decides that she’s had enough. The pay is bad, the hours are terrible, and whatever she does, she can’t get even her own boss to realize that there are looming dangers waiting around the corner if a crucial system isn’t updated soon, and another security officer is hired to back her up. The wrkload keeps growing every day, and though the company has several thousand employees in the country where she works, she’s the only one working full time security. The guard service doesn’t count any more, since corporate took away the night guard, and the reception guard, cutting service back to two visits per night. Money considerations, you know.

She decides that it’s not worth it any more. The company is okay, the colleagues are fine, and she like sthe job that she was hired to do, just not the one that she’s been tasked with in reality. There must be some way of getting herself a nice little nest egg, and at the same tie teaching the company a lesson. She takes out her binders, puts them in her backpack and drives home with them, spending several nights memorizing what she hadn’t already stored away in her head about guard rounds times, sort procedures in the morning and the evening, and where keys and alarm codes are stored. If she’s the one with the codes, she writes them down. Transport regulations and routines are put down in condensed format, driver rules and guidelines are in there, as is a small but detailed drawing of the company’s trucks and cars, and their weak spots. Where to get in the easiest, that is. The first part of the job is done. The hard part.

After almost fifteen years working in security, for several companies and agencies, and in a multitude of different jobs and locations, any security person is bound to make contact with some shady characters. That’s unavoidable, at least if the job is done right. She picks up the phone, makes a couple of calls and then heads out with a small folder tucked safely under her arm.

In a bar downtown, a man is waiting for her. He’s got a little folder of his own – it contains only one thing; an envelope. They meet for a few minutes, she leaves her folder and takes his, and no one sees anything. The bar doesn’t have surveillance, she knows that because she worked part time there as a «doorman» for a year or two, really only looking for some distraction, something different to do that didn’t involve sitting behind a desk, shuffling papers. Or sitting in a reception area, checking visitors against rosters and printing access badges to snotty guys in suits all day long.

No one sees them, there’s no camera to tell the story later, and even if there had been, no one would have known to look for it anyway.

Fourteen brutal delivery truck robberies later, three sort center break-ins and a clever theft of customer records later, the company is out three million dollars in cash, so to speak, and is losing business and customer confidence fast. The company will eventually recover, focusing on security, hiring in more security professionals both as a PR boost and because of the real operational need for tighter procedures, better systems and more oversight. The police investigation is terminated – it’s apparent that there was someone on the inside, helping whoever it was that committed the crimes, but there’s no way of figuring out who it was. Nothing is missing, there are no records of suspicious activity, night or day, and the security department has not had the resources to keep the necessary logs or surveillance footage to do any real investigation internally.

The company, in the end, writes off the loss, and moves on. All the while, the security officer can relax, having deposited a little over half a million dollars in her «offshore» bank account. It’s not really off shore – it’s just across the border in the neighboring country. She had that acount because she once had to get a work permit there for the very same company, which had sent her on a two-month assignement there.

Now, while this is fictional, ladies and gentlemen (as in, this never really happened) it is not by any strech of the imagination far fetched. It’s possible, it’s bound to happen just like this, and it’s just luck of the draw that it hasn’t already happened. Yes, we have a company in mind, and yes, we know for a fact that this is very possible for only one security professional to make this happen. We don’t know when and we don’t know where, but it’s bound to be reality at one point. So for now, try and take good care of your security personnel – they may just be among your greatest assets, but they’re also among the most dangerous people around.