Nigeria has a thriving security sector, but like the rest of the world it is facing a crisis that is demanding new ways if thinking and new ways of working. And like the rest of the world it is having to adjust at fast place. Yet there has been little research to indicate how things are progressing. There is little doubt that in times when people are concerned about survival, and can’t see a way out, social disorder is not far away. Sometimes this expresses itself in communities, sometimes in companies. And crime is changing and that is posing additional burdens or the security sector and its clients.

● What challenges are emerging for the security sector in the next stage of coping with Covid-19?
● How has the security sector been doing: a success or failure?
● What factors will most influence the development of security in Nigeria and how can they be influenced?

Panellists:
Dr. Kabir Adamu - MD, Beacon Consulting Limited
Tanwa Ashiru - CEO, Bulwark Intelligence
Engineer Mustapha K.A. Lusty - MD/CEO, Kontz Engineering Services
Cheta Nwanze - Lead Partner, SBM Intelligence

After the 45 minute panel discussion, the winners of the 2020 Nigeria OSPAs were announced and recognised for their outstanding achievements. The full announcement can be viewed here.

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/28/the-impact-of-covid-19-in-nigeria-what-has-been-the-impact-and-the-security-response/

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Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact in so many ways, and those working in the security sector have had a front row seat on the anxieties that have been unfolding. We have all witnessed deaths (including a disproportionately high number of security officers), illnesses, bankruptcies, unemployment, mental health issues, and the consequences of these and many other factors will be felt for years. In this webinar we will be examining some of the harms caused and which have and are involving security personnel, either directly or indirectly and we will examine what the short-term and longer-term consequences are. This webinar will examine:

Which harms are directly impacting most on security professionals and why and how?Which harms are impacting on security professionals in the environments they serve and protect and why and how?What are the best practices that can be followed, what can be learned from what is happening globally?

Panellists:
Matt Hopkins - Associate Professor at University of Leicester (UK)
Anne Wanielista - Project Management Consultant, Action Woman (Belgium)
Thomas Uduo - Corporate Security Trainer - ICEST (Nigeria)

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/28/the-security-sector-and-the-harms-caused-by-covid-19-what-have-we-learned-so-far/

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This session is sponsored by TrackTik https://www.tracktik.com/

Cloud-based technologies are offering new capabilities to gather live data in order to gain business and operational agility, as well as to differentiate security service offering. Yet it requires security practitioners to modernize their operations to seize these new opportunities and keep up with the evolving threat landscape, which includes global pandemics and unexpected natural disasters nowadays. Frontline security demands are becoming ever increasingly more complex and security companies are being pushed to using data intelligence in order to improve their business offerings and this is being interpreted as an unqualified good, but is it? In this webinar we will address: 

What are the opportunities and options presented by data intelligence for security businesses?
What are the challenges to this trend; is it an unqualified good?
What has been the impact of data for security companies during this Covid-19 pandemic? What’s next?

Panellists:
David Chandler – President at CALSAGA, California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards & Associates (US)
Simon Ferragne – CEO / Founder at TrackTik (Canada)
Godfrey Gaston – Director at CSIT, Centre for Secure Information Technologies (UK)

A video and summary of this session is available here:
https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/26/examining-the-value-of-data-driven-intelligence-in-security-operations-influential-or-overstated/

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This session is sponsored by TEAM Software https://teamsoftware.com/

That technology has the potential to revolutionise security is not in doubt, and previous webinars are testament to the fact that it has already done so. So too though, we have learnt that things go wrong. In this webinar rather than re-iterate all that is good we explore the problems that result from technology not working optimally or failing altogether. We will explore issues such as (the lack of) skill development; faulty buying processes and purchasing errors; user error/poor practices; poor specification; installation weaknesses; managing the insider threat; design errors. If we are to better understand how we can improve technology we need to engage with the much more avoided topic of why it doesn’t work. This webinar will discuss:

- What are the reasons why security technologies sometimes don’t work?
- What we can learn from current weaknesses; what are the routes to better practices?
- Confronting rogues: what can be done?

Panellists:
Jill Davie – President, TEAM Software (US)
Eddie Sorrells – Chief Operating Officer/General Counsel, DSI Security Services (US)
Jeff Chludzinski – CFO, First Coast Security (US)
Simon Pears – Global Security Director at Sodexo

A video and summary of this session is available here:
https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/21/when-things-go-wrong-being-honest-about-technology/

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This session is sponsored by Atlia-ABM https://altia-abm.com/

One of the big challenges of modern society across the world is to cope with the risks of the wider adoption of the virtual world. Precisely because it is expansive, borderless, and facilitates anonymity in transactions it is attractive to offenders. We have heard from a previous webinar that many criminals are going online; we have heard from them that it is both less risky and more lucrative. There is growing concern that Covid-19 has driven more desperate and angry people to crime, exploiting the weaknesses in systems as more people work from home and organisations are in disarray. This webinar will assess:

The scale of the threats posed by financial criminals
The approaches being adopted and weaknesses being exploited
The routes to better policing of financial criminals

Panellists:
Mick Creedon QPM – Altia-ABM
Nick Downing – Chief Intelligence Officer for Cifas
Susan Frith – Chief Executive Officer at NHSCFA
Prof Michael Levi – Professor of Criminology at Cardiff University

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/19/are-financial-criminals-running-amok-because-of-covid-19-how-should-we-be-responding/

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This session is sponsored by Bidvest Noonan https://www.bidvestnoonan.com/

In security we are well versed with the argument that big data spells enormous opportunities for the security sector. Also, that it presents dangers, in, for example, it not being used to its full potential, that its benefits may be mis sold and crucially that hard won civil liberties and privacy protections will be undermined. In this period of Covid-19 we have witnessed the widespread benefits, for public health in particular, of track and trace systems, and yet there are widespread security concerns about these too. So where are we now with big data and what are the implications for the security sector?

- What are the benefits and threats of big data use for the security sector?
- To what extent have changes brought about by Covid-19 impacted on our faith in and concerns about big data?
- How useful can big data be?

Panellists:
Mike Anderson – Sr. Security Program Manager at Microsoft (USA)
Steve Elliot – Managing Director, LexisNexis Risk Solutions (UK & Ireland)
Mark Hobden – Business Continuity Manager at Bidvest Noonan (UK)
James Willison – Director at Unified Security Ltd, Vidsys Consultant and Expert Evaluator (UK)

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/14/maximising-the-potential-of-big-data-and-protecting-peoples-privacy-the-challenges-for-the-security-sector/

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This session is sponsored by Social Stories Club https://socialstoriesclub.com/

One of the key issues confronting society today, and all the more so following Covid-19, is the adverse mental health state of people. We have all heard about the impact of working from home, in isolation, worried about family members, suffering from family members, concerned about keeping jobs, worried about losing or having lost jobs, financial problems to name but a few. But little is known about the scale of problems being faced. Less still perhaps about the policy and practice for responding to the needs of security personnel. Meanwhile and completely differently little is known about how the security sector can respond in the best ways to others outside security with mental health problems who are causing concern and present a danger/threat to security and other staff.

How are mental health issues being understood by the security sector?
What measures optimum mental health and resilience provision?
What are the threats post by Covid-19 and how should they be managed?

Panellists:
Harmeet Anand PCC – Executive Ontological Coach (India)
Pippa Seed – Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) Instructor at Mental Health Training by Pippa Seed (UK)
Philip Ingram – Founder and Managing Editor at Grey Hare Media and Consultant (UK)
Yolanda Hamblen – Account Director at DS Security Operations (UK)

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/12/mental-health-well-being-and-the-security-sector-how-it-manages-its-staff-and-how-it-responds-to-others/

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Moderator:
Rajiv Mathur – OSPAs

Panelists:
Ms Rekha Gairola – Boeing
Col. Inderjit Singh Barara – Vara Technologies
Maj Rohit Sharma – Sterlite Power
Mr. Jeetender Singh – Fortis Healthcare
Mr. Chander Gujral – TechSIS 

Security is taking on the role as advisor to the company and undertaking a broader range of roles than was the case previous to Covid-19. On a general level it is argued that the crisis has challenged security to think differently, this has to be a benefit. It has led to many innovations, sometimes small but which are having positive impacts. The stories are wide and varied as well as interesting. They extend to cyber as well as physical security and how they have worked together. This has raised points of focus, on practices which have become commonplace and need to change (not changing passwords) and gaps in skill sets which need to be addressed by training.

A video and summary of this session (and others from the day) is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/10/india-ospas-thought-leadership-summit/

Learn More about India OSPAs > in.theospas.com

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In previous webinars we have learned about the move to online crime in part generated by the reduction in on the street opportunities and fuelled by a working from home environment which has tested and is testing a situation in which people are working in new contexts not adequately risk assessed by companies, and who have often not been able to scale up security (both technical measures and policies and procedures) at anything like the same rate. Despite the popularity of concepts such as ‘convergence’ ‘ESRM’ and buzz words promoting closer collaboration between physical and cyber security it is far from clear that Covid-19 has harnessed the links; in many cases it seems to have created a greater divide. This webinar will examine:

To what extent and in what ways has cyber related crime become the dominant crime threat faced by organisations?
In what ways has the push for closer collaboration between physical and cyber security been enhanced or thwarted during this time of crisis?
Is a holistic approach to security ever really a possibility?

Panellists:
Salvatore D’Agostino – CEO at IDmachines and Co-Founder of OpenConsent
David Crozier – Head of Strategic Partnerships & Engagement – CSIT & ECIT Global Research Institute and Founding Partner Global EPIC
Pablo López-Aguilar Beltrán – Head of IT & Cybersecurity at APWG.eu
Sarb Sembhi – CTO, CISO at Virtually Informed

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/07/it-is-all-about-cybercrime-now-is-this-true-and-what-role-then-for-the-non-cyber-security-sector/

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Experience of Covid-19 has witnessed a shift in violence incidents. There has been a greater concern with violence in the home, with suggestions of higher levels of partner and child abuse and certainly more awareness of it. That many people are working from home blurs the distinction between home and work, but where does this leave the security sector if what was domestic abuse is now violence at work? What are its moral obligations? On the frontline we are hearing about the patience needed to enforce social distance rules in an ongoing way, and we are hearing about security officers facing abuse and attacks including spitting and being coughed over, so how should the security sector react to that? Public order protests are in vogue with widespread support sometimes in defiance of social distance rules. In this webinar we will examine:

The ways in which violence is changing and being understood in a Covid-19 environment
The specific problems facing the security sector and the clients and stakeholders it serves
The new ways and approaches that need to be considered by the security sector as it moves to the ‘new normal’

Panellists:
Sandy Cowie – Retired Director Global Security (US)
Bill Fox – Chairman at Maybo Limited (UK)
Dr. Claire Lawrence – Director at Lawrence PsychAdvisory (UK)
Joe McDonald – Manager at Wilson-McDonald LLC (US)

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/08/05/dealing-with-violence-in-a-covid-19-environment-what-are-the-implications-for-security/

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