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Criminals (at least, the sophisticated ones), industrial spies, internal thieves, business competitors, investigators for "hostile entities" (such as opposing parties in a pending lawsuit), terrorists and even government agencies all might conduct surveillance against facilities that we protect. Last month, I recommended a book by Ira Winkler, Spies Among Us dealing with this (and other subjects). I would also recommend The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick.
We really need to develop a much greater appreciation of the OPSEC and counterintelligence function that is implicit in almost *all* security positions. It is not emphasized nearly enough in most "security training" programs, and that is sometimes why security officers are so easily surprised when something goes down on their watch. There WERE signs...but they weren't trained to spot them because "counterintelligence" is either viewed as "cloak-and-dagger" stuff, or as only applying to "military" or high-sensitivity targets.
Regardless of who might be conducting the surveillance ("legitimate" or not), and regardless of what type of facility you protect, all security officers should be trained to look for surveillance activities, and know what to do if they should observe or suspect that surveillance is being conducted.
Here is a link to an interesting Web page entitled "23 Signs You're Under Surveillance" as a starting place for discussion on this topic, of which several would have applicability to security (others are more about electronic surveillance, which requires real expertise to deal with, or personal surveillance, and a few might even seem a bit paranoid). As I say, it's just a "jumping-off" point.
Any and all contributions, comments, experiences and thoughts are invited, especially from those members who might have worked in intelligence in the military, etc.
We really need to develop a much greater appreciation of the OPSEC and counterintelligence function that is implicit in almost *all* security positions. It is not emphasized nearly enough in most "security training" programs, and that is sometimes why security officers are so easily surprised when something goes down on their watch. There WERE signs...but they weren't trained to spot them because "counterintelligence" is either viewed as "cloak-and-dagger" stuff, or as only applying to "military" or high-sensitivity targets.
Regardless of who might be conducting the surveillance ("legitimate" or not), and regardless of what type of facility you protect, all security officers should be trained to look for surveillance activities, and know what to do if they should observe or suspect that surveillance is being conducted.
Here is a link to an interesting Web page entitled "23 Signs You're Under Surveillance" as a starting place for discussion on this topic, of which several would have applicability to security (others are more about electronic surveillance, which requires real expertise to deal with, or personal surveillance, and a few might even seem a bit paranoid). As I say, it's just a "jumping-off" point.
Any and all contributions, comments, experiences and thoughts are invited, especially from those members who might have worked in intelligence in the military, etc.
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