Teaser:
When sending employees overseas for travel, companies have a duty of care to ensure they provide the necessary security protocols, training, and contingency plans to ensure they come home safe and sound.
When employees travel, they face a range of risks—from the common pickpocket to the rare terrorist attack. For companies, the risk is doubled. Not only does management have to worry about harm or loss of life coming to a colleague, with the attendant personal and professional ramifications, but decision makers also expose their firms to liability if an employee is hurt or killed abroad. To address these issues, companies need to assess the threats and have a program that gives employees the security training and support they need to mitigate the risks.
Top Concerns
Terrorism and civil unrest were listed as the top concern by 44 percent of corporate security and risk professionals responding to a poll conducted jointly by International SOS and Control Risks, followed by natural disasters, petty theft and crime, and kidnap and ransom.
An analysis of a decade’s worth of jihadist communications shows that companies are right to worry about terrorist attacks. The study, conducted by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communications at Haifa University in Israel and a senior advisor to Bethesda, Maryland’s SITE Intelligence Group, found that al Qaeda and its jihadist sympathizers increasingly choose private business targets that cause economic harm to the West, especially the United States. The primary targets of this “econo-jihad,” says Weimann, are “oil facilities, infrastructure, transportation, tourism, and financial institutions.” Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terrorist assault on Mumbai was one recent example.
The biggest problems arise when employees travel to relatively stable but high-risk countries where business travelers can be lulled into a false sense of comfort and security. In this context, security professionals mention countries like Indonesia, Russia, and Saudi Arabia while alluding to larger regions like the Middle East and North Africa. More surprising is that they also name Australia and Canada as risky locations.
While Australia has not seen an attack on its soil, the country’s strong support for the U.S. fight against al Qaeda made its citizens targets abroad in the 2002 Bali bombings. And Chris Heffelfinger, a terrorism analyst for U.S. security consulting firm iJet, believes jihadists could strike Down Under soon.
In addition to its support for the United States, Australia, like the United Kingdom, has a large but poorly integrated Muslim immigrant population. “That’s a place where you have actual, physical radicalization taking place in very segregated, almost ghettoized communities,” Heffelfinger notes. The threat is more than theoretical. Australian authorities have already uncovered and disrupted several active plots, he says.
(To read the rest of July's Security Management cover story"Roadmap to a Safe Stay," click here .)
♦ Photo by laverrue/Flickr
Powered by: Phase2 Technology
Comments
Coming Home Safe; Not a Given
Until last week, I was employed by one of the world's largest companies (certainly one of the best known brands in the US and the world), responsible for one country operation's security. Unfortunately, I fell victim to crime returning home from a business trip abroad, and needed the company's assistance in returning home, since my cc's, passport (and all other ID), my car, my phone and computer was stolen and I was stranded.
After not getting any such support of guidance from the company, I subsequently resigned, seeing that the underlying policies and cares of the company did not satisfy any standard in security.
Thanks for this article, I'll make sure my former superiors see this, and I'll do my best to spread the word. This is actually something that a prospective employee should look for in a company, even ask about the guidelines, procedures and policies while in an interview. It'll show interest in the company, and I know that in my book at least, getting a question or five about this from someone I was interviewing would show both care, knowledge and due diligence on the part of the applicant.
Thanks again.
SnallaBolaget - Security, That's Right!