Posts by Fred Burton
The Protective Intelligence Winter Reading List
With 2021 coming to a close, and the first day of winter upon us, there’s no better time to hit pause and immerse yourself in a good book. Especially when you work in the world of security, safety and protection during a year where you’ve been pushed beyond your limits and faced with the unimaginable…
Read MoreStudy Finds Increase in Cybersecurity and Physical Security Attacks Against Executives
In the art of protective and tactical intelligence, trends and analytics matter. Information and intelligence feed “living” threat assessments and should drive your cybersecurity and physical security strategy, coverages, and resources. Protection resources cannot be logically allocated to protect executives and companies without first understanding the holistic threat landscape. In the executive protection security space,…
Read More3 Ways Retail Security Teams Can Better Protect Shoppers and Employees
Retail stores across the country, most recently in areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles, have been hit hard by a spree of ‘smash-and-grab‘ crimes. In one incident, up to 80 suspects were involved in a flash mob looting of a store. Some chains and storefronts in hot zones have chosen to close locations to…
Read MoreLeading a Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis Program for One of the World’s Most Well-Known Brands
Angela Lewis, Manager of Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis for The Walt Disney Company and Protective Intelligence Honors Thought Leader, is tasked with the massive job of understanding how geopolitical events and global security intelligence could impact The Walt Disney Company’s various lines of business. To do so she’s created one of the best protective…
Read MoreAligning Organizations Around Security (and Against Workplace Violence)
Fred Burton shares with Forbes how organizations can create a culture of safety and security. This article was originally featured in Forbes This year, workplace violence has had a tragic impact on people and businesses across the country. In January, a pediatrician in Austin was murdered at her office. In March, a lone gunman opened fire inside a supermarket…
Read MoreWorkplace Violence Considerations for Businesses and Citizens
Due to how normal workplace violence has become in our society, we’ve become conditioned to quickly forget and move on. The “new” attack falls from the news cycle and headlines, taken over by the next big news story of the day. Take the recent shooting inside the King Soopers, in Boulder, Colorado, for example. This…
Read MoreThe Protective Intelligence Fall Reading List
I’ve always been a reader, even when I was a cop. As an agent, I always had a stack of books in my Ghurka carry-on bag for downtime on protective intelligence operations around the globe or for long Pan Am Clipper Class flights to distant time zones. But, having investigated so many bombings and hijackings…
Read MoreThe Imperative for Human Resources and Security to Work as One
I often talk to large enterprises about the way their corporate security teams are structured and what other teams they work with to gain or share threat data. Often I come to find out that many departments, in particular human resources (HR) teams, are often siloed from corporate security. Not working closely with HR can…
Read MoreThe Protective Intelligence Fall Podcast List
While I am certainly more of a reader than a listener (to podcasts at least) I have had the honor of not only supporting the production of the Ontic Protective Intelligence Podcast over the last year but also being a guest on many podcasts. Our podcast series has come a long way since producing our…
Read MoreExecutive Risks Intensified Throughout Pandemic, Study Finds
This article was originally featured in ASIS Security Management. The scenic neighborhood of Pleasure Point Drive in Santa Cruz, California, was shockingly disrupted in the early hours of 1 October 2019 when Tushar Atre was dragged from his home by three assailants. By 9:00 a.m., the namesake and then-CEO of tech company Atrenet was found…
Read MoreFred Burton – Most Influential People in Security 2021
This article was originally featured in Security Magazine. Looking back at his life, Fred Burton says his father instilled within him the very values he holds dear today, including a commitment to service and a wish to make a difference. “My dad gave me a better start in life than he ever had and instilled…
Read MoreRipples of Sept. 11: Afghanistan, Counterterrorism, and Concerns For Corporate America
This article was originally featured in The Hill. As someone who was engaged in the hunt for and capture of Ramzi Yousef, the first World Trade Center bomber, the need to be proactive in addressing terror threats was always clear to me. However, terrorism simply was not a national priority throughout the 1980s and 1990s.…
Read MoreThe Attack Cycle, Mass Shootings And Lone Wolves: What Companies Should Know
This article was originally featured in Security Magazine A mass shooting at the workplace is a nightmare for everyone involved. But for corporate security professionals, it means the injury or death of colleagues, executives or customers they are responsible for keeping safe. And the trauma of these attacks goes well beyond physical injuries. The average gunshot victim…
Read More3 Questions to Understand and Analyze Any Threat
No successful team strategizes to win without evaluating who they’re up against. The same goes for security — a program has little chance of success without logically evaluating the risks or assessing the threat(s) at hand. Understanding the Threat The first foundational principle of an effective security program is to understand the threat, which should…
Read MoreWhy Does Convergence Matter? A Q&A with Bob Hayes, Founder of the Security Executive Council
Bob Hayes is a global pioneer of corporate security. A former CSO at Georgia Pacific, and a security operations manager at 3M, he’s designed and guided some of the most complex enterprise security programs in the world. He was also one of the first security executives to successfully implement a program to unify corporate security,…
Read MoreAmerican Companies Are Not Prepared for Physical Threats
The threat landscape has changed dramatically. As a nation, we’re seeing an uneven recovery, with masks and social distancing in some places, while others are wide open. Concerts and outdoor events are selling out in record time, even as law enforcement agencies warn that domestic extremists could exploit them for violence. The pandemic spurred 15…
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