According to an article in The New York Times, lawmakers are pushing to revive a proposal that would allow the 450 or so commercial airports in the United States to use private security companies to handle passenger screening. Currently, screening is handled by Transportation Security Administration employees.
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According to an article in The Security Letter, the trend toward contracting-out in the security guard industry is growing. They report, “At an industry conference recently, some participant felt the industry was becoming ‘mature.’ They felt that business was becoming harder to obtain, exacerbated by the relentless pressure to reduce hours and cut cost.
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Where are you on the security leadership continuum?
The Security Executive Council invites security leaders to visit www.securityexecutivecouncil.com to take a free, abbreviated version of the leadership component of its OPaL assessment. This 60-second security leadership insight assessment, available for a limited time, gives security practitioners a glimpse of how they have progressed in security leadership. As of August 20, 386 practitioners have taken the assessment, and most of them have been identified as "in growth mode." Continue Reading…
The Obama administration intensified a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants, notifying another 1,000 companies in all 50 states Wednesday the government plans to inspect their hiring records.
Businesses across the U.S. that rely on low-skilled labor are working to stave off Immigration and Customs Enforcement audits, which can lead to the loss of large numbers of employees, reduced productivity and legal expenses. Continue Reading…
Earlier today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a report containing the results of a study/investigation the Committee conducted over the past several months on various issues and current TSA policies related to the use of private screeners at U.S. airports through the Screening Partnership Program (SPP). The report provides clear evidence that private screeners are a cost-efficient and more effective alternative to federal screeners, and its exposes TSA’s current negative stance toward the SPP as a product of unsubstantiated policy rationales, erroneous data and biased studies, and collusion government unions Continue Reading…
The property/casualty insurance market is overcapitalized to the tune of $74 billion and will remain in the soft market phase of the pricing cycle until that difference between supply and demand is brought into balance, according to a new report from Advisen Ltd.
The overcapitalization largely is the result of the growth of policyholders’ surplus as stock markets rebounded from the financial crisis, along with reduced demand for insurance capacity resulting from the Great Recession as business activity decreased and property values fell.
"One unprecedented mega-catastrophe, or several very large catastrophes in close succession, could destroy the excess capacity and trigger a turn in the market," the Advisen report said. But, the consulting firm said, a more likely course is a "slow, painful hemorrhaging of capital as deeply eroded rate levels take their toll."
While property/casualty insurers’ recent results have been bolstered by the release of prior-year reserves, their ability to do so going forward has been diminished, Advisen noted. Meanwhile, the low-interest-rate environment will put additional pressure on insurers’ results, Advisen said.
How does this relate to the Security Guard, Investigation and Electronic Security Industries? Workers Compensation Rates continue to rise because of state rate increases largely associated with increases in loss costs or claim expense. Primary liability, Employment Practices, Crime, Property and Business Auto Liability are trending downward in 2011 only for firms who’s claim experience and operational profile justify a cost reduction. The crystal ball is unclear on 2012 or 2013. Bottom Line; Expect workers compensation rate increases of between 2 and 17% depending on your state while seeing up to a 5% decreases in insurance cost on other lines only if claim experience and operational platform justify the decrease.
» Click here for the full report from Advisen
While speaking to various organizations, I am constantly amazed at the lack of concern for protecting a business’ online presence. I offer a two hour session that focuses on finding personal information online, which begins to open the eyes of Management, but that was not cutting it. I have developed a new course that will concentrate on protecting a business from an internet view.
This interactive session identifies and demonstrates several methods of searching for information about a company online. This should be conducted monthly by any business that has an online presence. These queries will discover publicly available information that could harm an organization. A sample of topics includes locating complaints about service, employee information, comments from individuals, photos that can be tracked to the company, employee activity online, employee profiles, private emails, inaccurate information, common network vulnerabilities, confidential documents, user names and passwords, and even private customer data. Previous demonstrations have displayed that entire drives full of sensitive company documents were visible online by anyone with an internet connection. Solutions to solve all of these issues will be presented, as well as direct links to the sites that will help one identify the problems.
In a previous post (LINK HERE), I discussed how Peer to Peer software on ANY machine in a business could leak sensitive data to anyone on the internet. These programs, such as Kazaa, Limewire, and BearShare, are very common and usually used to download music. These programs also share data by default, and expose your sensitive information.
As another example, I explain how Meta Data within your documents on your web server may be exposing a lot of information about your employees, your computer systems, and the software that you are using (which exposes serious vulnerabilities). The last location where I presented this information exposed several forgotten documents that were still online which identified several user names, email addresses, illegal pirated applications, server names and directories, copy machine information, and even evidence of plagiarism and theft of intellectual property. This demonstration was conducted from scratch using free software, and completed in less than four minutes.
In total, I display over fifty resources that will help keep your online presence in a form that will benefit the business. I highly recommend that this session is presented to both Management and the individual(s) that will be conducting the inquiries. In order to view the complete presentation, a minimum of two hours is needed.
Insights about hot topics that hiring professionals need to watch in the coming year
Discrimination issues, global screening, contractors, credit checks, social networking and a tsunami of legislation headline the 2011 list of top background screening trends from EmployeeScreenIQ. Since 2007, we’ve developed an annual list for HR professionals and executives; this year’s picks are designed to equip hiring professionals with advance information on crucial screening topics before they become everyday news. Without further adieu, the top nine trends for 2011 include:
1 – EEOC takes aggressive action toward employment background checks. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has increased their scrutiny of hiring practices, exposing employers to a greater risk of discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC is especially targeting “bright line” hiring decisions that automatically exclude candidates with criminal records, arrest Continue Reading…
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Safety Techniques in Backing Up
Especially during the busy holiday season when everyone is rushing in and out of parking garages and structures it is even more important to be aware of our surroundings. When valet attendants and patrons are pulling in and out of parking spots and rushing the risk of accidents increases.
One out of every four accidents can be blamed on Continue Reading…
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