Active Threat: Preparedness is a Way of Life
Success, for example, often comes from being prepared. When it comes to active threats to our daily lives, preparedness can be the difference between minor and catastrophic.
Being prepared is not a new concept. Preparedness is a way of life.
And always has been.
Success, for example, often comes from being prepared. When it comes to active threats to our daily lives, preparedness can be the difference between minor and catastrophic.
We can go back thousands of years to give examples of how being prepared was not a choice, it was a requirement.
Think about how a mindset of preparedness goes in to events like floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters.
Although rare, most of us likely pictured the same practice drills in our mind. It feels “natural.”
Now, think of how we prepare for what seems unnatural.
Events like active shooter, mass casualty events and cybersecurity breaches have all become top of mind.
The headlines are numbing.
If you fail to prepare for the unnatural, a normal day can turn in to an extraordinary day in an instance, and it often does.
Preparedness is not new. Preparedness is a way of life.
Security in the work place comes in all different shapes and sizes.
Physical security, cybersecurity, information security, insider threat, work place violence, active shooter…are all forms of security.
Security incidents are going to happen. Risk is always going to be something businesses have to continuously assess.
That said, if a business has a mindset of preparedness, security incidents stay…incidents!
It is when businesses are not prepared, that incidents become critical events.
The difference between a small event and a catastrophic event, is directly related to how prepared people are, and if they reacted by following the correct steps to limit the impact.
Preparedness is more than just thinking of how you will react. It is more than just doing basic level training, in order to check a box for compliance purposes.
If businesses are not testing their training, how they can confidently say their training will work?
Being prepared is about knowing the threats (old and new), understanding them, and identifying the best ways to defend against them.
Businesses should be deploying professional awareness training on the active threats facing the organization.
Once your employees understand the threats they face, along with the risks involved with each threat, test them.
Practice potential scenarios. Create the chaos to see how people react (and remember!) under pressure. Evaluate the results of the test.
While businesses vary, there are some universal truths.
These truths include the fact that there are standards requiring employers keep their workplaces free from recognizable hazards.
That list includes the before mentioned, active shooter and other forms of workplace violence.
According to OSHA, workplace violence impacts over 2 million employees annually.
Alert Find recently shared a statistic from Lower & Associates, stating the annual comprehensive cost to businesses, including estimated losses, is now $130 billion compared to $36 billion in 1995.
One of Beryllium’s key business collaborators, Kiernan Group Holdings, Inc. (KGH), provides an educationally based model of preparedness that works from the classroom to the boardroom.
Beryllium collaborates with KGH because they share the same mindset and methodological approach to being prepared, in order to keep incidents from becoming catastrophic events.
Businesses should be collaborating with subject matter experts when preparing for risk mitigation and should never rely on single-threaded approaches.
Why? Because experts know the threat landscape.
Experts will help your organization develop or refine your emergency operational plans.
Also, they will help your organization develop scenario-based training, along with the drills and exercises tailored to your venue, to reinforce a critical preparedness mindset.
Kiernan Holdings Group and Beryllium InfoSec Collaborative specialize in getting your business prepared.
