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America was further taken by surprise in 2021 following the Presidential election
defeat of Donald Trump. The nation that prides itself on its representative
democracy witnessed a mob of over 2000 in strength storm and occupy Capitol
Hill, one protestor was shot dead by police during the event.

When the most powerful country in the world is repeatedly compromised, security
managers must realise that all threats are a possibility and therefore should be
investigated and recorded on their risk registers accordingly. A risk register is a
document used to record all identifiable risks and map them in accordance to
their likelihood and expected consequences/impact. Thereafter, suitable proactive
measures should be introduced to mitigate against the recorded risks and reactive
measures should be identified to ensure effective business continuity after an
event. Organisational response to an event should be tried and tested by means
of crisis management exercises. All stakeholders should be identified and their
roles and responsibilities explained. While exercising can be expensive and time
consuming they may also be cost neutral when delivered as a table top exercise
(TDG). Research of case studies (and lessons learned) from similar organisations is
a good starting point to prepare exercise scenarios. For example, communications,
or lack thereof, has often been acknowledged as a single point of failure in crisis
management. Military folklore provides a perfect example of poor communications
with the World War 1 story of a unit advancing against the enemy, the message was
passed back to Headquarters was “send reinforcements we are going to advance”
but in the heat of battle the message received was “send three and four pence, we
are going to the dance!”. It is of paramount importance that Corporate Security &
Risk managers take control of communicating an event to the stakeholders and
the media to ensure people are correctly informed before social media misinforms
them. The Boston Police Department are an excellent example of how social
media (Twitter) was used to keep the general public informed and out of harm’s
way. In the immediate aftermath of the 2013 bombings the Police Commissioner’s
Twitter account was used to keep the public informed and used to disseminate the
photographs of the suspect at large (Davis, E., Alejandro A. and Sklansky, D., 2014).

In conclusion, 21st Century Corporate Security & Risk managers have much more
responsibility now that ever before. Risk as a probability has morphed into risk
as an accountability and managers are the incumbents. Business functions of
physical security managers have increased and require greater understanding of
IT risk management, business continuity management and corporate governance.
However, greater responsibility attracts greater reward as security managers now
take their own seat on the Board, no longer in the shadows of facility managers or
other departments.

References:
Davis, Edward F. III, Alejandro A. Alves and David Alan Sklansky, Social Media and Police
Leadership: Lessons from Boston. New Perspectives in Policing Bulletin. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2014. NCJ 244760, 2014
Kean TH, Hamilton L. The 9/11 Commission Report : Final Report of the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Official government edition. [US
Independent Agencies and Commissions], 2011
Reddan, F., 2019. Dublin is now Europe’s largest data hosting cluster. The Irish Times
Syazwan Ab Talib, M. and Bakar Abdul Hamid, A., 2014. Halal logistics in Malaysia: a
SWOT analysis. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 5(3), pp.322-343.

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