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The SmartWater Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of Sir Keith Povey QPM as its Chairman.

The SmartWater Foundation is a not for profit company established by SmartWater Technology Limited to provide charitable donations in support of crime reduction initiatives. The aim of the Foundation is to seek out and identify those communities and individuals that would benefit most from SmartWater’s products to improve their quality of life, whilst continuing to support the police in terms of funding the provision of specialist equipment, forensic analysis and training of officers.

Sir Keith Povey joins The SmartWater Foundation with over 40 years of Police experience, having served at every rank of the Police Service. Sir Keith has experience working within four different police areas, including four years spent as the Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary. Sir Keith has also spent five years working as regional HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspector) for the MET Police and the East of England, and was responsible for leading inspection teams reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of eleven Police Forces, including the MET.

The latest figures from the British Security Industry Association show that the proactive partnership work between the Home Office, Police, the GMB trade union, and the banking, retail and security industries to reduce cash-in-transit crime is continuing to bring results. The number of attacks against cash-in-transit couriers has reduced by 29% in the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period the previous year and overall there has been a 20% decrease in the number of attacks since the partnership initiative commenced in June last year.

BSIA Director, Tim Thomas, comments: "We have seen a significant reduction in the number of attacks against cash-in-transit couriers over the past year thanks to the dedicated work by all stakeholders involved in the initiative. Comprehensive police operations, combined with a multitude of high-tech security solutions, are not only preventing crime from occurring, but are also leading to the arrest of those criminals that do commit an attack. We now need to see partners go still further to make an even greater impact on this very serious crime. This means changing mindsets, demonstrating a long-term commitment to best practice and proving to the criminal that cash-in-transit crime is not easy money."

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "Following a landmark agreement last year we have been working hard with our partners in the police, security industry and trade unions to secure cash delivery facilities, share intelligence behind the scenes and boost training for workers on the front line. These extremely encouraging figures show that effective partnerships can deliver results and drive down cash in transit robbery. I would like to congratulate everyone involved for their hard work so far and I look forward to seeing the downward trend continue."

Gary Smith, GMB National Officer responsible for GMB members who work in the security industry says: "GMB welcomes this start in tackling these horrendous attacks. We all need to do a lot more. GMB’s starting point is that we will not be able to eliminate the desire on the part of criminals to get their hands on the cash being transported by our members. We have to put in place a system that makes it all but impossible for them to do so and to get away with it. That means a 360 degree solution. Where possible we need to engineer the cash in transit system so that there are no opportunities for criminals to get near the cash. Where this is not possible, we need to make it as difficult as possible to carry out attacks, and where attacks are carried out we need to ensure that there is 100% chance of the criminals being identified and caught. When they come before the courts they need to be sentenced robustly for their crime and this will act as a strong deterrent against cash-in-transit attacks which should be seen as a crime against the person not a business crime. Local authorities need to make real changes on the issues of access and planning. They need to stop issuing parking tickets to cash-in-transit vehicles and instead offer parking exemptions, enabling cash-in-transit couriers to park closer to their delivery point and therefore, allowing them to be at risk for a shorter time as they cross the pavement. This will allow couriers to do their jobs more safely and to get on with providing a valuable public service."

Employers in the security industry could face imprisonment and fines of tens of thousands of pounds unless they are able to prove they took all reasonable steps to check their staff have a legal right to live and work in the UK. The warning comes from Phil Brown, of online HR toolkit creators Youmanage, amid new tough government measures designed as ‘part of the biggest immigration shake up for 40 years’.

Under the new Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which has just come into effect, employers could face up to two years behind bars and / or a fine of up to £10,000 for each illegal immigrant found to be working on their premises. Mr Brown warned employers across the country it was now more important than ever not only to carry out stringent background checks before taking on a new employee, but to keep a record of those checks as concrete evidence.

Speaking of the new measures Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said: “Illegal working attracts illegal migrants and undercuts British wages. The message is clear for employers – we will not tolerate illegal working.”

Phil Brown, Managing Director of Youmanage, said: “The government is really cracking down on businesses which knowingly employ illegal immigrants which is why it is so important now to not only make checks on anyone you recruit, but also to be able to produce hard evidence demonstrating that you made those checks before taking that person on. “Just this month a business owner in Bury whose premises were raided by immigration officers was fined £2,000 after admitting four charges of employing illegal workers. Although two of his staff had produced false documents he was still punished as he took them at face value and did not keep a copy of them and was therefore unable to prove he had made stringent checks. Unless you are able to demonstrate you are taking all reasonable steps to ensure your workers have the right to live and work here legally you are effectively jeopardising the whole future of your business. This can be particularly difficult for larger businesses and those spread across multiple locations, where they are reliant on individual managers making the necessary checks.”

The FIA (Fire Industry Association) has recognised the increased role that fire risk assessments continue to play in the new fire safety regime with the announcement that the Association is offering to provide representation for those companies undertaking such assessments.

Concerns have been voiced by many within the fire protection arena regarding the professionalism of some fire risk assessments. Given that this assessment is the fundamental foundation upon which critical fire safety decisions are taken, the FIA is seeking to establish a Council within its existing structure dedicated specifically to this growing sector of the industry.

Fire risk assessment companies would become ordinary members of FIA, with their own Council comprising elected individuals from member companies. The Council’s Chairman would have an automatic position on the FIA Board.

Graham Ellicottt, CEO of FIA, comments – “This initiative is very much in its early stages but we are delighted at the level of interest with more than 50 companies having shown an interest to attend an initial exploratory meeting. This took place in late June with Iain Cox, Chief Fire Officer of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Chair of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association National Fire Safety Committee providing independent Chairmanship for the meeting.”

FIA appreciates the importance of maintaining its position as the pre-eminent trade association within UK fire protection and as such has identified one of the first functions of the Council to be the creation of a full set of membership criteria based on proof of competence

Pilgrims Group has been awarded the national SunGard Availability Services (UK) Limited contract to provide manned security guarding teams to SunGard’s availability services locations across the UK. Consisting of 16 of SunGard’s 20 UK sites from central Scotland to Dorset, including a number of sites in central London, Pilgrims will secure these buildings providing front-of-house security services, including guarding access control and visitor management.

SunGard is a providerof business continuity, disaster recovery and managed services help keep customers’ people and critical business information connected when, where and how it matters, helping ensure availability to its customers.

“The security of our recovery sites is imperative to help us support our customer base,” said SunGard Availability Services’ UK security manager, Mark Brown. “We chose Pilgrims Group because of its reputation and expertise in dealing with high-end niche security requirements. We were also impressed with Pilgrims Group’s ability to offer up-to-the-minute intelligence services which will alert us to the latest information in areas that can affect our business and customers, such as terrorist attacks.”

Pilgrims Group commercial manager Martin Neil (pictured with Mark) commented: “We are delighted to be chosen to provide our expertise to SunGard.”

Many struggling to meet regulatory obligations

Recent research conducted by Norkom Technologies reveals that, while the costs associated with watch list management continue to rise, most financial services organisations are struggling to meet their regulatory obligations and are ill-prepared to monitor suspected terrorist activity in times of crisis.

This was evidenced when, after a foiled terrorist attack in 2006, the UK government asked institutions to search their global operations for 17 named suspects. For most, the process took over three weeks. Yet, despite these apparent failings, the cost and time associated with watch list management continues to rise. 38% of organisations have seen time associated with watch list management rise within the last 12 months. Over one-third say that it accounts for more than 20% of investigatory time, representing an annual business cost of US$1 million.

According to Edward Doyle, Norkom’s Sanction and PEP Compliance Manager and author of the new whitepaper, “If it takes organisations so long to conduct an enterprise-wide name check at the behest of their government at a time of national emergency, it seems safe to assume that they complete the task no less speedily during the course of daily business”.

Other findings include:

Fewer than half (45%) of institutions are able to search for a person’s name across all of their business lines, databases and geographical boundaries
One third (31%) still rely on manual processes in such searches, even though some of the institutions have more than ten million active customer accounts and process more than a million transactions each day
Encouragingly, however, 79% of institutions have recognised the seriousness of the problem and have centralised all anti-money-laundering responsibilities under a single reporting line
27% have taken the more decisive step of centralising their intelligence gathering by implementing a single technology capable of consolidating information from various detection systems.

On the 26th of June Roche U.S. announced a scheme for businesses to reserve a stockpile of the antiviral medication Tamiflu to assist in covering their employees against a pandemic outbreak. This offer was widely welcomed and seen as a positive step to ensuring wider coverage for business by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. However, no plans have been released to provide a similar offering in the UK and Europe.

As a direct answer to this need, a UK based occupational health provider has pledged to offer corporations a similar scheme here in the UK.

The Healthcare Connections scheme offers companies the opportunity to stockpile the antiviral medication Tamiflu in the same way as the Roche U.S. offer, under which you can reserve one employee treatment course. The benefit of this is that companies do not have to commit to such a large financial outlay from the outset.

Healthcare Connections builds on this stockpile offering by also supplying companies a route to prescribe and supply to their employees, which is something the US scheme does not offer. For £8.25 per person/per year (or less than 69p per calendar month) the scheme not only guarantees the stockpile of medication, but also retains the services of Healthcare Connections as the designated occupational health providers for the event of a pandemic.

UK and US employees are costing businesses $37 billion (£18.7 billion) every year because they do not fully understand their jobs, according to a new IDC white paper commissioned by Cognisco, the world’s leading intelligent employee assessment specialist.

‘$37 billion: Counting the Cost of Employee Misunderstanding’ reveals for the first time the scale and impact on businesses of employee misunderstanding. Employee misunderstanding is defined as actions taken by employees who have misunderstood or misinterpreted (or were misinformed about or lack confidence in their understanding) of company policies, business processes, job function or a combination of the three.

The research shows that whilst organisations are often aware of the costs of misunderstanding, only one in three claim to have taken any action to close the gap. By ignoring the issue, firms put themselves at risk for compliance, public safety and legal problems. Approximately two thirds of the total cost of misunderstanding reported by organisations was attributed to loss of business due to unplanned downtime (32 per cent), poor procurement practice (17 per cent) and settlements for industrial tribunals (16 per cent). Other costs incurred include regulatory penalties and tax or revenue penalties.

The findings also highlighted that the real cost of employee misunderstanding may be even higher when costs such as impact on brand, reputation and customer satisfaction are taken into account. All 400 companies asked, reported that employee misunderstanding had placed their company at risk of injuries to employees or the public, 99 per cent cited risk from loss of sales and reduced customer satisfaction in the last twelve months.

BSIA announces new Chief Executive

The BSIA has revealed the identity of the Association’s next Chief Executive. John Bates, who is currently Director of Corporate Communications at GSL, will succeed David Dickinson who retires at the end of 2008.

The Chairman of the selection panel, Adam Wiseberg, said: “We had a wide-ranging and very talented pool of candidates from which to make our choice and we conducted a searching and extensive process, advised by a specialist executive search consultant. I am delighted to say that the Council has confirmed the appointment of John Bates as Chief Executive.”

The newly elected Chairman of the Association, Stuart Lowden, commented: “John Bates’ twenty plus years of industry experience, and in particular, his skills and reputation as a communicator, give me every reason to be confident that the future of the BSIA is safe in his hands. I welcome the appointment and look forward to working with him in the coming years."

John Bates expressed great pleasure at being selected and said: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the team at the BSIA. I look forward to working with the Chairman and listening to the views of all those with an interest in seeing the BSIA go from strength to strength. Together, I'm confident we can build on the achievements of David Dickinson and deliver support in equal measure to all BSIA members"

It is expected that John Bates (pictured) will join the BSIA some time in the autumn for a handover period from David Dickinson, before assuming full responsibility on 1st January 2009.

G4Tec (Group 4 Technology) played host recently to an audience of staff and special guests to celebrate the presentation of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The prestigious Award was given in acknowledgment of the company’s sustained performance in international trade where, over the last three years, export sales have increased by 50% which has resulted in an ongoing expansion.

The presentation of the engraved crystal bowl was made by the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire to Keith Whitelock, CEO of G4Tec at the Headquarters in Tewkesbury. Marking the occasion, G4Tec laid on an evening of celebration for all their staff to thank them for their continued efforts.

Taking a moment out from the celebrations Mr Whitelock said, “I am delighted to accept the Queen’s Award on behalf of the G4Tec staff. Despite tough market conditions, the contribution and commitment by the employees across all the business areas have ensured we have been able to grow within a highly competitive global market.”

UK security integrator, ToroTech has called on all government departments to implement tighter security measures for removable devices such as USB sticks and removable hard drives. With over 37 million pieces of personal information lost in 2007 the risk of loss through such devices is greater than ever. In a report provided to parliament in January by The Rt Hon. Nick Clegg MP, it was found that data lost had included names, addresses, passport details, hospital records and even credit card numbers.

During a three-month period in 2007 the Department of Health recorded numerous instances of patient data loss across all Health Authorities with the majority of the losses from computing devices with data held in an insecure format.

David Hawksworth, managing director of ToroTech said: “USB and other data storage devices were originally developed to assist organisations to transfer data from one system to another but with the proliferation of such devices they have now compromised everyone’s personal security. With digital DNA the solution to data loss and overall security can be greatly simplified and we want to help government departments get to grips with the way they transfer and store data in order to reduce the risks of unauthorised access.”

Eighty-one percent of IT professionals admit their applications are vulnerable and are very concerned about hackers attacking business-critical applications. According to a survey released by Fortify Software, more than 300 IT security professionals, drawn mainly from 1000+ sized companies at the recent Infosecurity Europe 2008 event, cited application security as a key concern, with nearly a third admitting that they are “very worried” about the security of their applications. Moreover, a quarter of companies surveyed, outsource application development BUT do not specify any security processes or technologies be applied to ensure the security of outsourced applications.

The survey reminds that attempted hacks are commonplace. A third of companies cited that hacking is a daily occurrence. Worse, respondents cited that 17% of hacks were successful.

The research also found that the recent introduction of rules and regulations to enforce higher standards of security within business, are seen as a positive influence by over a third of security professionals, dubbing compliance such as PCI, Sarbannes Oxley, Basel 2 and the Data Protection Act as “brilliant” and “a great driver” contributing to a greater awareness of security within their organisations and also helping to get funds allocated to improving security.

Rob Rachwald, Director of Product Marketing at Fortify Software said “Compliance has become a major driver in fostering awareness for application security inside government and commercial organizations. This survey highlights the fact that compliance greatly increases the security team’s ability to procure funds to improve security. ”

ADP Security Systems has won a significant contract to provide security to Fareham Shopping Centre only weeks after the company opened a second office base in Eastleigh. The three-year contract is worth around £1 million to ADP, which is growing steadily as a provider of tailored security solutions to businesses in the South East of England.

Fareham Shopping Centre is an important town centre site, with over 80 retail outlets including well known national and independent brands spread over four main shopping 'squares' in this 487,000 sq ft scheme. The security remit involves providing 11 security officers to fulfil the role of the Centre's Customer Service Team together with fully trained relief personnel. The team will perform the full security services needed in a prominent shopping centre to ensure its smooth and safe operation.

Pam Gillard, Centre Manager, commented: "ADP was selected following a detailed security tender process in which they met our criteria for a flexible and innovative approach to the customer care challenges we all face in shopping centres."

BSIA Chairman receives award

Adam Wiseberg, Chairman of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), has received the PSI Premier Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Security Industry for his longstanding commitment - through key technical committees and industry associations - to the raising of standards and the implementation of best practice across the CCTV industry.

The award was given at the PSI Premier Awards Event, organised by Professional Security Installer magazine recently. The PSI Premier Awards judging panel was particularly impressed by Wiseberg's passion for a more professional and quality-based industry, which is effectively regulated to ensure that standards are kept consistently high.

Adam Wiseberg comments: "I am honoured to have received this prestigious award in recognition of my work to promote effective standards in the security industry. In particular I am delighted that my efforts - and those of my colleagues – with regards to the landmark BS8418 Code of Practice have been acknowledged in this way."