Corporate Risk Solutions

So what if my power goes off? Who cares if communication huts are vandalized? What does it matter to me if someone tries to damage a pipeline or transmission tower? As conscientious people, we all care about malicious attacks on a conscious level. However, it’s difficult to get an understanding on the impact such attacks would have on us all, especially if they were targeted against our utilities.

Utilities, in a way, can be compared to mountains and sky and oceans, they are always there and they are, for the most part, constantly working. So much so that we very rarely think about them. Yet, utilities are a significant part of America’s Critical Infrastructure. This means that they have been defined as being critical to the survival of our country and for the prosperity of our nation…

Professional design of security systems has become a lot more main stream and technically oriented. Further, more and more companies are requiring security be an integral part of any design-build team, rather than be treated as a standalone supplemental project. The reasons for this convergence include not only the significant, generational leaps in security technology, but also the increasing deployment of these systems across traditional company infrastructure. This requires much more involvement with all functions of a design-build team. Further, with the enactment of many industry, regulatory and government requirements and standards since 9/11, the attention given to and required of security assurance is much greater…

With all of the technology advances today, the product specialization and the interoperability of security systems and platforms, the challenge of selecting and installing the appropriate security system is a daunting task for even the most veteran security professionals. Assigning this responsibility to someone that is not familiar with the security systems themselves, the legal standards, business needs and risk-vulnerability mitigation requirements behind that system selection, often creates an absolute disaster. The reason for this is as simple as, “bad information input, plus limited knowledge, equals bad decisions”…

Regardless of the size of your business or whether your liability primarily occurs at the State or Federal level, well-written policies and procedures help businesses protect themselves. While larger companies usually have Human Resource Departments with knowledgeable professional staff members to aid in compliance with regulatory issues, many smaller businesses use employees that are managing many diverse functions within the organization. A multi-functional employee may not have the knowledge or experience necessary to understand compliance issues or human resource best practices. For these employees, human resource tasks and company compliance becomes a part of their job simply because no one else is available. Unfortunately, lack of experience or knowledge will not eliminate an employer’s legal responsibilities or reduce liability risks; rather it is more probable to increase risks…

To understand the value of business continuity training and exercising, you must first understand the critical elements of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and its impact on your company, even when there is no disaster.

Interestingly, while many companies have considered some elements of disaster recovery plans related in the IT area, only a few addressed other business functions and even less addressed those processes related to the human element…

Mary was a tenured, trusted employee who worked as a cashier for a midwest company. As such, her job required her to accept cash payments from customers on a daily basis. Unfortunately for the company, it was not receiving all its revenue.

Unbeknownst to them, Mary had an urgent need for some extra money to bail her husband out of jail. With that need came the near-perfect opportunity for Mary to remove or skim the money from the customer payments.

The “Skimming” scheme, which occurs when an employee steals incoming cash (money from the top) from a business, is the single most common form of misappropriating funds. In fact, it’s the scheme employed by nearly two-thirds of the employees caught stealing, accounting for about 64% of occupational losses. The effect is that revenues show either a drop or smaller-than-expected rise, while conversely the cost of business (defined by overhead) goes up…