It’s sobering news at a personal level; and a warning shot at a humanitarian level. When 12 people go to work in a relatively mild mannered environment such as a satirical magazine and don’t come home – they have paid the ultimate price, but not knowingly as combatants. There are clearly political aspects to this which are complex however, most worrying, is the overriding trend of lone wolf or splinter groups focussing on soft targets as part of a trend of vigilante justice.
I won’t pretend to understand the mentality of the attackers but I can sympathise with the authorities faced with the task of protecting the public. It is harder to track and contain a larger number of small units than one large radical group. This is an area that Westminster is all too familiar with; albeit from a technology angle rather than a political and strategic standpoint.
How early can you intervene? In reality, at a very early stage. The earlier you can upset the traffic of people and equipment who are intent on causing trouble, the harder it will be for them to complete their mission without being caught. And this is where the installation, operation and maintenance of intelligent and advanced detection, tracking, surveillance and interception technologies become critical.
We have clients around the world who are looking to build security features into day to day activities and infrastructure – transport infrastructure; thresholds, as elementary as office entrances and boundary limits, such as county and city perimeters, borders and ports of entry; and, public spaces where high volumes of individuals will habitually congregate or pass through. This is technology trying to keep one step ahead of the threat. It is building the intelligence network and associated solutions to pre-empt and respond as quickly as possible.
Interestingly, this is a global phenomenon. In the world today there are numerous terrorist and extremist organisations – each with their own hatreds and political agendas creating wars unrest and acts of terrorism. We have seen recently highly publicised examples in Paris and Sydney where radicalised extremists have succeeded in their mission. It is also true however that today we have access to better technology, systems and solutions available to deal with such threats. In many parts of the world there are preventative measures being put in place and we are proud that we are assisting in that process helping governments and corporations protect their infrastructure, assets and people.
Our Mexican franchisee is fully paid up and making great progress in handling enquiries and the enquiry stream coming out of South America, the Middle East, Asia and the African continent continues to impress.
On a jollier note – Happy New Year to you all. We look forward to a successful 2015.