MARC KAHLBERG – SECURE ZONE CONCEPT
“Security is no more just the ability to react to unanticipated situations, it is the innovative collective use of intelligence to be able to DETECT, DELAY and DETER a threat, in the first place, in order to prevent it from happening or to minimize the damage as much as possible by proactive strategic planning.”
Marc Kahlberg; Netanya Tourist Police Commander – “Creating a Secure Zone Concept”
March 2002 following the Park Hotel Massacre in Netanya, Israel on CNN Breaking News
As far back as 2002, after responding to several terror attacks it became obvious that physical security can, at times, provide hard protection against violent events. It also became clear that technology in the form of various sensors and fast communications, certainly could assist in protecting against the violent criminal or terror perpetrators. In a few short years it became reality that the criminal or unauthorized use of electronic data would blend into traditional cases of extreme violence and be used by common criminals, state actors and indeed those who, simply have the intellectual knowledge to commit cybercrime.
While the Covid pandemic has changed traditional criminal patterns and technological advances sadly also empower those who live off crime, cyber space must have certain advanced security elements put in place so as to maintain some form of rational that creates a platform and scope for law and order for the intelligent stealth cyber thieves, cyber-terrorists and indeed espionage elements of this world.
Cybersecurity can assist in protecting against the criminal or unauthorized use of electronic data or the measures taken to achieve this but certainly nothing is completely impenetrable.
Physical security provides some hard protection against events that could cause serious loss or damage.
Cyber intelligence will certainly be the predicative method to protect not only personal information and privacy but assist in protecting critical and strategic infrastructure and intellectual property. The proactive collection of intelligence while researching and analyzing trends and technical developments should be one of the most important aspects of a real integrated security doctrine.
In May 2017, I wrote an article https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech-talk/author/1452/marc-kahlberg. I noted the increasing trend on spending more on cyber security and not enough attention was being paid to increasing the mass flow of information that stalks our lives through metadata and the hidden worms that crawl through our very eyes and indeed controlled by our own damaging fingertips.
In collecting virtual intelligence that is real time, predicative and available via open-source intelligence means, there are several methods of virtually collecting intelligence and analyzing the information collected. These methods are indeed providing law enforcement the ability to proactively gather time sensitive information and intelligence, creating at times a proactive preventative methodology instead of always being on the defense.
Cyber-attacks are rising in quantity and quality and the cyber war is amongst us already; coercing and manipulating not only the unsuspecting easy targets but indeed the most advanced of cyber experts to simply click a button and become entrapped and held hostage to ransoms that at times, have no borders or trace.
In an interesting article on the 22 February 2021 by Yaakov Lappin in the Jewish News Syndicate , Lappin quotes Israeli cyber-security expert Menny Barzilay, who warns that for the first time in history, “crime is being led by the smartest people in the world: Prevention is not enough; we have to be able to detect attacks that we did not stop and respond effectively.”
Perhaps the adage “The best defense is a good offense” that is typically associated with military combat and yes indeed sports (often attributed to Michael Jordan), it was first said to be mentioned by George Washington in 1799, “…offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only means of defense.”
While in the midst of any crisis, it may appear that defense is the best choice. Crises at times can also present opportunities but strategic decision makers must consider a plan of offense.
As I mentioned to Wolf Blitzer on CNN in 2002 and thereafter, with the assistance and blessings of the Israel Police and City of Netanya, I implemented my Secure Zone Concept program successfully, first in Netanya, Israel, then in Pembroke Pines, USA and thereafter this program was shared and taught to many law enforcement agencies globally. The Secure Zone Concept, although at times amended and tailor made for different law enforcement purposes, has proved that all forms of security, are no more just the ability to react to unanticipated situations, it is the innovative collective use of intelligence to be able to DETECT, DELAY and DETER a threat in the first place, prevent it from happening or at least to minimize the damage as much as possible by proactive strategic planning.