The Meticulous Eye Demanded by High Profile Investigations

When one incorrect piece of data could cost someone their life, you have no choice but to be meticulous about what you do. Kurt McKenzie, Director of Physical Security at MongoDB, has had a career that hinges on the ability to be meticulous in every single thing he analyzes. He is a retired FBI Supervisory…

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How Security Teams Enable Decision-Making in Times of Crisis

Major General Richard Lake works as an independent consultant focusing on global and corporate security issues. Prior to his retirement from active duty in 2013, Lake served for over 36 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence, foreign area, and infantry officer. He also served for four years with the CIA as one…

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Separating Signals From Noise: The Biggest Security Challenge Moving Forward

See how generative artificial intelligence is revolutionizing threat detection and risk mitigation. This article was originally featured in Forbes When I started my career as a counterterrorism investigator, information was much harder to come by. A single clue was hard-earned and often involved following breadcrumbs and retracing steps. Real-time data was even rarer since the…

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5 Things California Employers Should Consider to Comply with Senate Bill 553

If you are an employer in California, you’ve probably heard about Senate Bill 553, the legislation requiring most California employers to take steps to prevent and respond to workplace violence and threats. After opposition from various business groups and labor unions prompted the removal of some controversial provisions, the bill passed the California legislature and…

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Collections from a Lifetime in Protection 

Anyone who has read my memoir Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent (Random House, 2008) knows I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a different era when blue-collar families like mine could afford to co-mingle with the Washington power brokers and elite. Geography is always important, and…

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Till Death Do Us Part — Security at High-Profile Funerals

When it comes down to it, funerals for high-profile individuals reflect much of what takes place at a large scale event. From the intricate level of detail involved in planning logistics to managing media to ensuring unwanted guests stay clear of the service — the event must feel seamless to the average spectator, despite the…

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‘Mission First, People Always:’ A Mantra for Security Talent

This article was originally featured in Security Management. The phrase “Mission first, people always” is a common mantra in the military, and it is often borrowed in leadership studies. It’s a vision of success that invests in the success of those around you, a sense of shared mission (the why), no matter your specialty or…

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Inside the Mind of the Attacker: Using Red Teaming to Mitigate Business Risk

Dr. Treston Wheat is a red team analyst who specializes in TTP (tactics, techniques, procedures) research, threat modeling, and social engineering. Previously, he was a strategic cybersecurity analyst and geopolitical risk analyst. Dr. Wheat is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University teaching about intelligence analysis, and he is the editor-in-chief of IPSB’s The Close…

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The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend: Strengthening Insider Threat Resilience with Cyber-Physical Integration

This article was also written in partnership with Josh Massey, Director of Enterprise Risk of The MITRE Corporation’s Enterprise Security Assurance department. As such, Mr. Massey is responsible for establishing, executing, supervising, and directing the implementation and oversight of MITRE’s insider threat program and strategic protection initiatives across MITRE’s six federally funded research and development…

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When the Little Things Add Up: The Intel Analysts’ Role in Communicating Imminent Risk to Leadership

The geopolitical landscape has become increasingly complex to manage for intel analysts — especially those conducting risk assessments on an international level. They have to be hyper-aware of countries with a more authoritarian regime that can leverage the business relationship in their best interest, putting the company at risk. However, it’s not always easy to…

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