An Executive Plan for Troubled Travel

A security expert offers tips and tactics for surviving a business trip to some of the world’s most dangerous locations.

by J. Jennings Moss Mar 05 2010 Portfolio.com

Travel Security: What to Pack to Survive a Natural Disaster

Secure travel plans often consider kidnapping or terrorism. But what about natural events like the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile? Chris Falkenberg has advice on what travelers should pack for the best chance of surviving a disaster

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSO

March 02, 2010

Security directors and CSOs are often responsible for devising secure travel plans for the employees in their organization.Preparation often includes education, training, and perhaps even a counter-surveillance program.But what about iodine pills and a satellite phone? If you ask Chris Falkenberg, founder and president of Insite Security, all travel plans should also include certain items that can be invaluable in the event of an unforeseen natural disaster (Also see: 4 Steps Security Can Take to Prevent Kidnapping).

According to Falkenberg, the 8.8 earthquake in Chile, coupled with the 7.0 Haitian quake, has made the issue of travel security more important than ever. Insite, a United States-based security and risk management firm, advises corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

“Much thought is given to man-made disasters such as terrorism, but relatively little to natural and unpredictable catastrophes,” said Falkenberg. “It is important for the corporate security manager or other c-level executives to embrace a holistic approach to risk mitigation including natural disasters and their results.”

Falkenberg spoke with CSO about the variables organizations should consider, and the items they should pack, when traveling, particularly in the developing world or politically unstable regions.

CSO: You think these recent earthquakes have really brought to light the importance of secure travel plans that consider not just man-made security challenges, but natural ones. Why is that?

Falkenberg: I think the issue of travel preparedness is one that has to incorporate a broad area of risks. What usually happens in a security department is a great focus on man-made events; a great focus on terrorism, a great focus on crime. There is much less of a focus on natural disasters. That is probably because in some cases they are easy to avoid and also they are so rare. But it’s very valuable for travelers to think about what happens if they are off the grid for a few days and really have to make it by themselves, staying healthy and getting out and to a place of safety. That is something that both Chile and Haiti underscore: If you’re responsible for travel security and travel safety, it’s important to prepare travelers to be able to fend for themselves for 72 hours. That, in my view, is the story of these earthquakes. It’s not only the bad guy down the hallway or the bad guy with a truck bomb, it’s also fires and earthquakes, and other sorts of bad stuff that can happen.

CSO: So what kind of advice can security folks give travelers? What should they advise them to pack and be prepared?

First is a satellite phone. I think they are very valuable, even in the U.S. In the event of a big U.S. crisis, like a black out, or even some kind of crisis where cell towers are still up, they will be deluged with calls. And in some municipalities, cell phone providers prioritize calls from police and public service, so you might not be able to get a line. We are told to use SMS messaging to get information through, but if a cell tower is down, you’re stuck. A satellite phone is totally independent. And if you don’t want to carry a satellite phone, there are satellite-based beacons that people can carry that are designed for back up use but are applicable to people are in a city as long as they are outside.

The second thing is the issue of pure water. One of the most valuable things we could send to Concepcion (Chile’s largest city impacted by the quake) now is one of a variety of water-treatment mechanisms. All of them are very small and intended for backpackers and hikers and so therefore easy to put in suitcase. There are clean water straws, there is a UV-electric device, there are iodine pills, there are a number of ways in which you can take unsafe water and make it safe. I think that’s really important to consider packing something like that when you are traveling in a developing country.

The next thing is flashlights. I can’t imagine a more valuable security or emergency tool than a flashlight.

And N-95 masks. They would be very useful in Haiti and Chile because it enables you to breathe in dusty environment. A mask would also be helpful if you found yourself somewhere in a flu pandemic and you want to protect yourself form airborne contaminants.

Lastly: A good medical kit. We work closely with a group of emergency doctors who send their clients off with pretty robust medical kits and access to a physician. You may not have access to physician immediately, but if you have a medical kit with prescription medication you are just so far ahead of where you would be otherwise. If you have an injury with tremendous pain, you can take prescription pain medication and hold it together until you can get out to a medical facility.

All of this equipment is not small, but it doesn’t take up a ton of space either and can be very valuable if you get into a situation.

CSO: Have the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti had an impact on your clients travel or business continuity plans?

We had a number of clients in Haiti, so after the quake in Port au Prince, we were busy ensuring safe transportation of supplies from the Dominican side to the Haitian side. But so far in Chile, we’ve had nothing. It’s only Monday and that may change, but so far we haven’t heard of any client needs related to what’s going on in Chile.

The tsunami warning created a significant problem because it was such a wide, potentially-affected area that it caused a ripple in a lot of logistics problems for clients as far as landing locations for refueling and other positioning issues. We had to work around that. For instance we had a client who was supposed to land in Hawaii to refuel an aircraft, so that required a whole bunch of re-routing of airplanes from there to Anchorage. Obviously you can’t have airplanes flying into airports that may be subjected to flooding. So you have to think quickly in cooperation with flight planners to move stuff around.

Travel Safety Tips Provided

by Jack O’Dwyer

With political unrest widespread throughout the globe, former Secret Service Agent Christopher Falkenberg is advising clients who are traveling to avoid hotels that are “identifiably American or part of an American chain.”

Falkenberg, who now heads Insite Security, said travelers should not take fancy luggage and should dress “plainly” since the wealthy are a popular target.

Travel from the foreign airport to a destination is something that should be arranged in advance, he says.

“You should know who your driver will be in advance and have a picture of him or her,” he advises.

Driving at night is to be avoided and use a local driver if that is possible, says Falkenberg. He recently gave a webinar on traveling abroad with Dr. Daniel Carlin of WorldClinic.

Among tips from the webinar is that travelers should pick rooms on the second through seventh floors that do not face the street.

Other advice is to take a room that is far from the lobby and not to linger in the lobby.

Check if the hotel has sprinklers and fire alarms before booking a room.

Information should be obtained on how to contact the local authorities in case of an emergency.

Should there be a “medical emergency,” Falkenberg and Carlin warned that the “first hour is critical.”

Scope out the best local hospitals in advance, they said.

“Seemingly innocuous things” such water, mosquito bites and mopeds can cause big problems, said the pair.

Contaminated water can be avoided by buying sealed bottles of water and travelers should be aware that mosquitoes carry serious disease.

Travelers should get the proper inoculations beforehand and pack copies of medical and legal records in case of an emergency.

Take a small LED lithium-powered flashlight, a smoke mask, cable ties for luggage, and a satellite phone if visiting a Third World country.

Use of a moped can be dangerous unless the traveler is accustomed to driving one, they said.

Political demonstrations are to be avoided because they have a tendency to “get out of control.”

Newark Airport Security Breach Video Shows Man Giving Goodbye Kiss to Girlfriend

AVIATION, ESSEX COUNTY, TRANSPORTATION

January 7, 2010

By MIKE FRASSINELLI & JOSEPH R. PERONE

The video of the Newark Liberty International Airport security breach that was finally released to the public on Thursday showed what people who had seen it earlier already described — and more.

The security officer leaving his post. The female passenger helping the man under the security ribbon. The goodbye kiss.

The footage was grainy and the faces hard to make out, but security experts and others who looked at said the problems at the airport were clear.

“It’s a total screw-up in every sense,” said Fred Cate, a professor and security expert at Indiana University.

Cate was one of many security experts who viewed the video for the first time Thursday; many of them found problems that had not yet been pointed out.

“You have people right up against the exit lane,” Cate said, referring to secure and non-secure areas shown in the video being separated only by a rope. “In most airports, you have a corridor. But Newark doesn’t have room. They need some low walls to create an exit, so you don’t have people behind a taped barrier.”

The video was made public after U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) demanded it from the Transportation Security Administration and Port Authority in an effort to get help from the public in identifying the mystery man who caused Sunday night’s breach inside Terminal C.

Among the additional revelations, the video begs the question of how one TSA security officer could possibly keep track of so many people in the exit lane.

Nonetheless, it does show the officer was away from his post — a small desk near the area where people wait for arriving passengers — for 85 seconds.

While the officer is away from his post at the Terminal C-1 exit lane, a female passenger who had already been screened leans over the same desk to help a man get inside the secure area. The two embrace and walk away hand-in-hand, 30 seconds before the unsuspecting security officer returns to his post.

“I was enraged” by the video, Lautenberg said during a news conference at the airport last night. “To think, here’s a guard post and a narrow corridor — and this guy literally walked through. How could that happen?”

The TSA has said the man, who was not a passenger, later left the airport after seeing off the woman on her flight. Authorities are still trying to locate him.

“It really looked like there was some kind of pre-arranged planning — that he was going to go with her into the controlled area,” said Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who said his students pointed out problems revealed by the video all day.

The breach, reported by another passenger, shut down the major terminal at one of America’s busiest airports for nearly six hours, stranding thousands of passengers and tying up flights around the world.

When TSA officers went to review the security breach on a video surveillance recorder focused on the exit lane, they realized the camera system hadn’t been working for six days. That prompted them to try to access the video by Continental Airlines, the main tenant in Terminal C. But there was a delay because TSA called a number different from Continental’s operations center.

TSA was advised by Continental to call the operations center from now on, and TSA has volunteered to check the camera system regularly and work with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, to make sure their cameras are working properly.

MONETARY DAMAGE

Airport security areas should be standardized around the country, said George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com, a travel web site.

“And obviously, this guy should be fired immediately,” Hobica said of the security officer. “He caused a huge amount of monetary damage — probably in the hundreds of thousands when everything is tallied up in missed vacation days, wasted jet fuel and police overtime.”

The TSA officer has been placed on administrative leave, an agency spokesperson said.

TSA has also added an extra officer in the exit corridor and stationed the officers farther back in the corridor to give them a better view of people walking the wrong way.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the agency is conducting a comprehensive review of the incident.

“The surveillance video from Newark Liberty Airport clearly shows that a TSA officer’s actions led to the Sunday incident,” the TSA said in a statement yesterday after the video was released by Lautenberg’s office. “We will use this hard lesson to reinforce the sharp focus and tight discipline at all our stations across the country and ensure we maintain the public trust.”

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) last night pushed for additional measures. He called for video surveillance that continuously functions and is continuously monitored, as well as additional security layers to compensate for human error, such as electronic sensor equipment or one-way gates.

Menendez called the breach “completely unacceptable” and cited horror stories from Sunday night, including a member of the Armed Forces who was caught up in the delay and feared he would be classified as AWOL.

Christopher Falkenberg, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and chief executive of Insite Security, a New York security consulting firm, said the TSA should consider installing turnstiles or revolving doors to restrict access to secure areas.

“It’s simple technology that exists in every New York City subway,” he said.

Sunday night’s breach unnerved people for the security holes it exposed at Newark Liberty, more than eight years terrorists passed through the airport’s screening, undetected, on Sept. 11, 2001, and took over a plane that eventually crashed into a field in western Pennsylvania.

The TSA should use Sunday’s incident as an opportunity to improve, said Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney, anti-terror expert and former mayor of Englewood.

“A security system reduced to rote procedures and routine cannot suffice,” he said. “We should use Israel’s system as a model. The airport should be a sterile experience, and security intelligence should begin when travelers book their tickets.”

Douglas Laird, an aviation security consultant who formerly was director of security for Northwest Airlines, said finding the man who caused the breach might not be easy.

“In all my days at Northwest Airlines, we probably had 15 of these a year worldwide,” he said. “In no place did they ever find the person who caused the breach.”

Staff writers Brian Murray and Ted Sherman contributed to this report.

Supply Chain Security Threats: 5 Game-Changing Forces

CSO

December 16, 2009

By LAUREN GIBBONS PAUL

As any CSO knows, it’s not enough to mind your own business. You have to look after your business partners as well, across all links that connect to your supply chain—whether that chain is physical or virtual. And that goes double in times of rapid change and high stress.

“The threat environment is constantly changing,” says Ryan Brewer, CISO for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on what’s most important.”

Who would have thought three years ago that piracy on the supply chain would be such a big concern? Sometimes the big worry is terrorism, sometimes it’s natural disasters, lately it’s malware. Here are the top five developments CSOs say have the biggest potential to wreak havoc on their supply chains.

No. 1 Game-Changing Force: ‘Black Swan’ Events

As Nassim Nicholas Taleb explained in his 2007 book of the same name, the term “black swan” refers to an event that is high-impact, hard to predict and rare. Black swans need not be negative (as in the case of 9/11) and can present times of great opportunity, but CSOs rightfully spend their time worrying about the former scenario.

When it comes to the supply chain, black swan events can include everything from disastrous weather to global pandemicto terrorist attacks. The problem is, if you prepare for the worry du jour, you may leave yourself exposed on other fronts. Case in point: avian flu. Warned that a large-scale outbreak of Asian bird flu would put supply chains at risk, global businesses braced for the worst. Executives discussed how the supply chain might be affected if the flu broke out in China. Their plans rested on transporting and storing materials in other places around the world.

Then, early this year, H1N1 flu broke out in Mexico and spread quickly to unexpected regions like Australia. “Companies had to immediately reassess their plans because they were based on specific scenarios,” says Adam Sager, senior manager of business continuity consulting at Control Risks, a security consulting firm in Washington. This was a major wake-up call. “Companies realized they needed to better prepare for unexpected events and increase their knowledge of how their organizations could be impacted. If something is emerging on a global basis, they need to act before it affects their supply chain,” says Sager.

When a crisis hits—no matter where on the globe—you need to be able to understand and assess the situation using firsthand country- and location-specific information, says Sager. And you need bi­directional communication between crisis managers and the locale where the event is occurring. Sager notes that companies are discovering gaps between their crisis plans and their operations.

“They had security management and crisis management plans in place, but the missing link was integrating them with the business so people around the world could understand management’s position regarding critical things such as uptime, issue resolution and who’s responsible,” he says. This type of information is often not conveyed to the field in advance, a crucial error. Management needs to empower local decision-makers in advance to take action quickly to mitigate damage if certain conditions are met.

The plans have to address not just key supply chain nodes and specific scenarios that could occur, but also emerging security vulnerabilities. “That is a different mind-set and way of planning,” Sager says. “The security department has to come together with the operational/financial side of the business,” looking at all aspects of the supply chain, including where the different components are located and alternative sourcing arrangements. Sager puts his clients through tabletop testing, in which executives sit in a conference room and go through a scenario point by point with the key decision-makers, reviewing how they would respond.

Marc Siegel, commissioner for the ASIS International Global Standards Initiative, is leading the charge to develop an ISO standard for supply chain resilience. ASIS has already published SPC.1, its first organizational resilience standard, which it expects will be ready by the end of the year. “We think standards are the answer for dealing with [black swans],” Siegel says. “Companies have to develop a comprehensive [supply chain resilience] strategy because their resources are limited. This allows you to look at the full picture, rather than just separate out the different things.” For example, a strategy to prevent terrorism might work against piracy or help during an earthquake as well.

Organizations need to approach risk from a holistic standpoint, Siegel adds. “The problem with the risk du jour is that the likelihood of it happening varies so greatly between organizations that it can divert your attention away from doing a comprehensive risk assessment.” In short, it can make you take your eye off the ball.

No. 2 Game-Changing Force: The Rise of Malware

Information security matters also weigh on CSOs’ minds, though they are not as visibly related to the supply chain as physical security is. An organization (and therefore its supply chain) can be brought low by an attack on its information network as surely as it can be hurt by an attack on its cargo. Many CSOs say they are worried about botnets; two of the most pressing threats related to botnets are spam/phishing attacks on employees and the possibility of a resurgence in the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that first appeared 10 or more years ago.

Ed Amoroso, CISO of AT&T, blames rampant technological complexity for the rise in malware. “The primary root cause for almost everything we deal with—commercial customers and everything—is complexity. The computers and networks that people set up and use have become way too complicated,” says Amoroso. Since no one knows exactly where all the connection points between systems lie, it is easy for wrongdoers to exploit them. “I’ve read that 95 percent of the spam that is floating around is botnet-originated,” he adds. “It’s all about complexity—people not knowing how to stop it on an individual, corporate and information security level.”

Like Amoroso, Joonho Lee worries a lot about the advent of integrated DoS attacks. “DoS used to be about large-volume traffic hitting your network,” says Lee, an officer for the National Incident Response Team and assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “Now, there are so many different types of attacks. It’s not just flooding you with traffic anymore. It’s flooding you with traffic that you can’t block.

“We have all the DoS protections, but I’m very skeptical about them always working. If you get hit by a 40-gig-per-second pipe, it’s going to knock you out, either your network or your provider,” says Lee. “The hackers are leveraging hundreds of thousands of machines. DoS is definitely back on the horizon.”

Rena Mears, a partner in security and privacy services for Deloitte & Touche, believes the malware supply chain is itself approaching maturity. “You go back a decade, and it was a few people doing mental gymnastics. Then we moved to an era where it was monetized [via phishing and spam]. The next step was the massive quick hit—equivalent to a bank robbery. Now we are seeing something much more insidious,” says Mears. Malware and its perpetrators are growing increasingly sophisticated.

Rather than carrying out the massive hit-and-run DoS attacks of the past, today’s malware seeks to sustain itself at a relatively low level, similar to the way a parasite survives in nature. “This is more of a constant-stream-of-revenue strategy. The malware agent can live below the organization’s pain threshold, but it siphons off information to compromise intellectual property or scoop up credit card information,” Mears says.

Lee, for one, does not believe that network service providers can adequately protect against the threats posed by new-breed malware. Amoroso of AT&T acknowledges that the situation is difficult, saying only that, like other providers, AT&T has developed multiple strategies for handling new-breed DoS attacks. He believes that the increasing popularity of thin clients will help thwart these attacks because they are simpler, with fewer moving parts to attack.

No. 3 Game-Changing Force: Economic Downturn

It is axiomatic that crime increases as the economy deteriorates. A number of threats—to physical security as well as information security—have become more pressing in the past year or so. Many CSOs expect the associated threat pool to continue to widen. Although the economy is forecast to improve slowly in the coming year or two, many experts expect the reshaped landscape will not necessarily signal a return to prosperity for all, or even most, of society. Some people will be desperate and therefore prone to desperate actions.

As the economy continues to falter, more and more people are losing their jobs, which often means losing their health insurance as well. Ray Biondo, CISO at Health Care Services (which runs four Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Illinois), fears ongoing economic problems will cause wide-scale employee layoffs, which the company has so far managed to avoid. He fears the coming of a national healthcare plan could have the same effect. Biondo finds himself worrying more about insider threats to information and physical safety than he did a few years ago.

“I worry about internal physical threats and threats to our data. People become very anxious, and data leakage becomes an issue,” says Biondo. He believes he has taken all available measures to protect information and physical security, but he remains uneasy. Chris Falkenberg foresees increased threats to personal security, including the kidnapping of business executives abroad and attacks on high-net-worth individuals. “CSOs will have to deal with these things because they have to protect their executives,” says Falkenberg, president of security services firm Insite Security. He also worries that personal kidnapping could become a problem in the United States, though the country does not have the widespread governmental corruption that typically allows such activities to take root. He believes most CSOs do not have the internal expertise to handle this type of threat.

Lee, of the Federal Reserve Bank, believes emerging threats such as malware and attacks by insiders require stronger communication between the information security and physical security groups, as well as any other departments that get involved when there is a problem, such as legal. “There needs to be better teamwork. It’s not just training,” he says. “Even if these groups do speak to each other, they usually would just offload the case onto the other side. Everyone involved needs to know the logical next steps. There needs to be recognition of joint ownership of the problem.”

No. 4 Game-Changing Force: Data Explosion

Data is now so ubiquitous and so pervasive that people lose sight of it. Even many manufacturers today are so massively involved in data, they never think of themselves as anything other than purveyors and users of information. The level of integration companies have with their processes and business partners is something they could not have contemplated just five years ago, says Mears. The explosion in both data itself and the practice of sharing data outside organizational boundaries presents a number of different kinds of risk.

Companies of all types and sizes share infinite amounts of information with business partners. This data is constantly updated and flows back and forth. “This is a two-way chain,” says Mears. “That means you are replicating data. We used to say ‘defend the perimeter.’ Many companies don’t even have a perimeter anymore.”

Data and information are assets, but executives don’t know what they have, where it all is and who is (and isn’t) protecting it. “It is very difficult to secure data when you don’t know exactly what it is and who you’re sharing it with and no one is on the hook for those decisions,” says Mears. This reality necessitates a risk-based approach to data protection. “You cannot protect all data anymore. Not all data assets are worth the same amount. You have to be sure there is a return on that data asset, just as you would with any other asset. You should provide security commensurate with the value of the information asset,” she says.

Deloitte is advising its clients to develop a more focused response to information security. In a highly integrated global environment, companies understand that their core intellectual property is at risk, but they cannot afford to protect the daily flotsam that is part of business as usual. “Data protection is now a C-suite and a board-level issue. Executives are beginning to think about how to maximize the return on their data assets,” says Mears.

No. 5 Game-Changing Force: Regulatory Burdens

Since Sept. 11, 2001, and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, regulatory activity has been high in virtually every industry. This is certainly true in the food/beverage/agribusiness industry, due to the obvious importance of maintaining a food supply that’s safe from contamination, whether malicious or innocent. H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, just passed. And Walmart made news in 2008 when it required all of its food suppliers to comply with the stringent GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) standard. According to Rick Shanks, this standard above all mandates traceability within the food supply chain.

“Many food processors are not prepared to deal with the level of traceability required by the regulation,” says Shanks, national managing director of Aon Risk Services, the risk advisory division of Aon Corp. Traceability requires a high level of supply chain visibility, which has not always been available. That makes it more difficult to mitigate a food contamination incident such as salmonella in peanut butter or listeria on deli slicers. “When you have a food event, you have to be able to trace it back to its source,” says Shanks. Aon recently announced a service offering that helps food processors and producers achieve the necessary visibility.

A related force reshaping supply chains in the food and beverage industry is consumers’ increasing demand for visibility into the provenance of their food. Produce and seafood have been labeled to indicate origin for a few years now. The current “locavore” trend—which emphasizes eating locally grown food—stems in part from consumers’ beliefs that food grown and consumed nearby is less likely to become contaminated. Here, supply chains are shedding links to help allay consumer fears.

Chartis Expands Personal Security Services for High Net Worth Clients

Insurance Journal

December 8, 2009

Chartis is offering expanded personal security services from its Private Client Group. The insurer has introduced two complimentary resources, emergency preparedness services and access to Insite Security, to supplement Private Client Group’s property and liability insurance offerings for high net worth individuals and families.

The new offerings, which are in addition to existing risk management services designed to reduce the likelihood and severity of property damage, as well as maximize safety, are designed for policyholders with complex exposures resulting from worldwide travel; private home staff; multiple residences; yacht ownership; or extensive collections of art, jewelry or cars.

Emergency preparedness services help reduce threats to family safety, security and personal wealth through activities such as evacuation and communication planning, home security assessments, personal liability assessments, and crisis management. Consultations, either by phone or in person, are conducted by Private Client Group’s specialists who have backgrounds in personal and corporate security. The consultations can cover lifestyle risks, such as how often one travels, who has access to the home and the safety of children away at school; strategies to handle an incidental house fire or community-wide emergency; and personalized emergency action plan development.

Policyholders may be referred to a network of third-party vendors to assist with plan implementation. A 24-hour emergency preparedness and response hotline is also provided.

Private Client Group also has partnered with Insite Security so that policyholders can receive a one-on-one, at-home consultation (followed by a report outlining potential vulnerabilities and customized solutions); proposals for long-term security; and ongoing security training for staff and family.

Safe at home? Not exactly, according to Insite Security president Christopher Falkenberg (ex-U.S. Secret Service agent, Columbia Law School grad). “All a home safe does is buy time,” he says. “Still, they are necessary deterrents. The thing with jewelry is, if it’s just out there on the dresser, it is the easiest thing to pick up and take.” Falkenberg and his team—which includes the former head of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit and a Joint Terrorism Task Force agent—work with high-wealth clients and an architect to install home safes that are first meant to prevent burglary. “I can’t tell you how many people have their valuables in fireproof vaults,” Falkenberg says, “which are good at withstanding heat damage, but they’re pretty easy to open.” He insists clients have safes built into their closets, at eye or waist level: “You wouldn’t believe how many people leave their jewelry out after a party because the safe is on the floor.” And the inside should be organized like the very best California Closet and integrated with the home alarm system. “The systems we recommend,” says Falkenberg, “are so advanced, they send you an e-mail once the safe is opened.” Services range from $75,000 to $100,000 per year (212-362-5700; insitesecurity.com).

Countering Threats: Insite Security shields its clients against kidnappers and other criminals who prey on the wealthy.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT – PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2009

By CAREN CHESLER

It remains one of the most horrific kidnappings in history. In April 1992, Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped in his own driveway in wealthy Morris Township, N.J. Bound and gagged, he was put in a six-by-three-and-a-half foot wooden box, which was left in a metal storage room without ventilation or electricity. The 57-year-old father of five was left there for four days, lying in his own waste and given little more than water and vitamins. On the fifth day, his kidnappers returned to find him dead. Yet they continued to demand $18.5 million in ransom for eight weeks before finally being apprehended.

Reso wasn’t the first wealthy executive to be abducted and he certainly won’t be the last, which is why some of the country’s wealthiest families have hired New York City-based Insite Security Inc.

The firm’s CEO, Chris Falkenberg, a former Secret Service agent and litigator, counts celebrities, such as Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren, as well as movie stars and hedge fund managers among his clients. The firm has so many clients in hedge-fund heavy Connecticut, it opened a four-person office in Greenwich. Falkenberg founded the firm in 2002.

“I think the most important thing we do is prevent kidnappings and respond to them,” Falkenberg says. “It is the number one threat because it is exactly the type of crime focused against our client base. Our clients have an enormous amount of money and, therefore, they are attractive to kidnappers.”

His firm, which employs law enforcement veterans who formerly worked for the Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as several police departments, has about a dozen clients for which it provides security services on a retainer basis.Monthly fees range from $8,000 to $12,000. The firm also performs discreet services, such as installing home security systems, which could cost $40,000 to $60,000.

The range of services Insite provides varies, depending on the client’s level of risk. An executive with a company that does animal testing or sells fur, for instance, faces a higher risk, as do executives who have received a lot of publicity because of their wealth or been involved in a high-profile termination of an employee, according to Falkenberg.

Kidnapping, however, is a threat to anyone with a lot of wealth. Kidnappings are on the rise internationally, experts say, partly due to organized crime activity in countries such as Brazil and Russia, and the drug trade run out of countries such as Mexico, where kidnapping has become a lucrative criminal activity. That’s made border states like Arizona, Texas and California greater security risks, says Falkenberg.

Apparently, Connecticut has its risks as well. In 2003, billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert was kidnapped at gunpoint while leaving work. Several ex-convicts found Lampert, who at the time owned the $9 billion private investment fund ESL Investments Inc., by going into the prison law library in jail and typing in “richest guy in Connecticut,” Falkenberg says. They nabbed him at work after seeing that he went in every Saturday and parked in the same spot that had his name on it. He was held for ransom for two days before talking his way out of it.

Falkenberg feels one of the benefits his firm brings to clients is the ability to respond to such situations on a moment’s notice. Law enforcement agencies, in contrast, may not act with urgency until they’ve established whether a kidnapping has occurred, he says.

To help prepare for kidnapping situations, Falkenberg recently hired the FBI’s former lead hostage negotiator, Christopher Voss. Experts say the first 24 hours of a kidnapping are considered the most crucial, in terms of keeping the victim alive, Falkenberg notes. The presence of Voss will assist the firm when it needs to act quickly, he adds.

“Given that so many of our clients are U.S.-based, and so many [domestic] kidnappings result in homicides, we just can’t not have that capability in house,” Falkenberg says.

Voss says kidnappings are like Russian roulette. Most of the time, victims are unharmed. But when something does go wrong, the results can be disastrous. In the U.S., he feels victims face heightened risk because kidnappers are more concerned about covering up their tracks.

“In the U.S., we have an extremely robust law enforcement community, and kidnappers are afraid they’re going to get caught. And they’re not only going to get caught they’re going to do an extremely long time in jail,” Voss says. “Outside the U.S., they’re pretty sure they won’t get caught.”

The firm hasn’t yet had to deal with a kidnapping, but Falkenberg believes it may have prevented one. He had a client in New York whose child may have been a potential target. According to school officials, a man was asking questions about the client’s child. But once Falkenberg’s firm put the man under surveillance, he disappeared.

“There can always be an innocuous excuse for behavior, but we didn’t think that was the case here. So we increased security, and the surveillance ended,” Falkenberg says. “One of the frustrating things about selling these services is that, unlike an investment advisor, we can’t prove a negative.”

Aside from kidnapping, the biggest issues clients face are home invasions and confidence games perpetrated by the people around them, Falkenberg says. For example, the firm had two ultra-wealthy clients whose college-aged sons were preyed upon by women who wanted their money. The parents had grown suspicious of the women, but their sons, who were so flattered by the women’s interest, refused to end the relationships.

Falkenberg’s firm discovered that both women had created a web of lies, about their identities, their college majors, and various other basic facts. The men ultimately terminated the relationships.

The women likely found the men in one of the college yearbooks created for entering freshmen, Falkenberg says. In general, he says, the less information that’s available about his clients, the safer they are.

“These days, there’s so much information out there about people, specifically the wealthy, that it creates security issues for them,” Falkenberg says. “Even if they make huge efforts not to draw attention to themselves, like those who vociferously guard their privacy and don’t talk to the media or take credit for their charitable foundations, they still end up in media reports on the very, very wealthy, like the Forbes list.” Some of the biggest breaches in security occur when people voluntarily give up information, he notes.

Falkenberg, who served on the security detail for the first President George Bush and then for President Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign, recommends that the wealthy keep public information about themselves vague, business-oriented and impersonal. The wealthy should be guarded about where they live, whom they know and what they do for hobbies, he says. The firm also does thorough background checks on anyone working for his clients, from nannies to landscapers.

Many of his clients, particularly hedge fund managers who have acquired enormous amounts of wealth early in life, find they and their children are living in a bubble. One of the firm’s challenges is allowing clients to live somewhat normal lives while looking out for their security.

“They’ll have a security infrastructure, but they don’t want to see or have to worry about it,” Falkenberg says. “It’s not so easy to do that.”

What makes it even harder is when clients are resistant to his security efforts. He once had an interior designer balk at the prospect of putting smoke detectors on the ceilings of each room, suggesting instead that they be put in closets. The wife of one of his clients asked that the unsightly surveillance cameras in the backyard be tucked away so far into the bushes that it rendered them useless.

The most resistant family members, he says, are children, who are warned not to put intimate details on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Many simply refuse to comply.

Risks don’t just occur at home, he notes. The ultra-wealthy have to be careful, perhaps even more careful, when they travel.

“When you show up and get off a Global Explorer – a $15 million private jet – people look at you differently,” he says. What predators see, he says, is opportunity.

Falkenberg had a client whose five-member family was traveling through one of the former Soviet republics 18 months ago and was detained at an airport by border officials who were apparently looking for a payoff. After six hours of detention, Falkenberg says the family was freed after his firm “negotiated” with the officials.

“We used contacts we developed in advance of the trip,” Falkenberg says, adding, “And maybe there was some payment of compensation to someone. And maybe not.”

Falkenberg says he’s seen an increase in requests for security services related to overseas tourism and business travel. It’s not surprising. Security experts say Americans traveling internationally face increased risks today to not just their safety but also their health. For that reason, Falkenberg’s firm recently partnered with a company called WorldClinic to provide emergency medical care to its clients. With a network of 4,000 doctors outside the U.S., WorldClinic provides around-the-clock medical care to clients who suffer serious illness or injury while traveling abroad.

Falkenberg believes people should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Anne G. Donohoe, who works for Falkenberg’s public relations firm, KCSA Strategic Communications, can vouch for that. She was recently preparing for a trip to the Tuscany region of Italy when she received a call from Falkenberg, who told her to become acquainted with the plane’s exit routes and to wear sneakers on the flight, in case she has to run. He told her not to take the sneakers off until the plane is at cruising altitude, and because she was staying in a 200-year-old villa, he warned her to locate all of the exits in the building in case there was a fire.

“I told him, ‘You’re scaring me.’ And he said, ‘Great. Have a nice trip,’” Donohoe says. “Now when I travel, I keep a flashlight on me, in case there’s a power outage.”

Running Scared

WEALTH & PERSONAL FINANCE

October 28, 2009

By PAUL SULLIVAN

A YEAR after the bursting of the housing, credit and commodities bubbles, Erik Davidson of Wells Fargo Private Bank is worried. He said he thought a new bubble had emerged, this time in something seemingly benign: cash.

“We see, and benefit, from this tsunami of deposits,” said Mr. Davidson, the bank’s managing director for investments for the western United States. “It’s great for the bank, but at a certain point you see this fixated look in people’s eyes and realize this is a cash bubble.”

The idea of a cash bubble may sound ludicrous. Why wouldn’t putting your money into something as secure as certificates of deposit or Treasury bills be a good thing? In the short term, yes, it is. But people who stick with cash will find themselves unable to regain what they lost, Mr. Davidson said.

“If your portfolio was down 33 percent, you need a 50 percent increase to get back to even,” he said. If all your investments were in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, which went down 57 percent, “you need a 132 percent return to get out of the hole,” he said. Returns on cash typically yield 2 percent or less.

Investors are so wary of another bust that they are taking extraordinary steps to try to prevent getting caught in one. A cash bubble, and the emerging gold bubble, Mr. Davidson said, are really fear bubbles. The areas in which these fear bubbles are rising show just how scared investors remain:

TRUST

For many investors, faith in a diversified portfolio burst with the bubble.

Nancy Rooney, head of Northeast investment business for the J.P. Morgan private wealth management unit, said she spent the early part of the year coaxing clients into the most secure bonds. Now she is trying to convince them that the six-month run-up in the stock market is not another bubble waiting to burst.

“They’re so panicked because they lost some money, and now they wonder how can they possibly get in,” she said. “You have to gradually put some risk back in portfolios.”

To allay their concerns, she advocates choosing managers who will find the better-quality investments within a sector. But she is also talking to clients about using structured notes, a fairly simple derivative, to mitigate the risk of another bust. In return for forgoing part of the potential gain, a limit is set on how far a stock can fall.

“If I’m concerned about the markets, if my strategic view is we could see some rocky road ahead, there is no exchange-traded fund, no manager who plays to that view, so I have to craft something myself,” Ms. Rooney said. “People equate derivatives with risk, but the reason we’re creating these structured notes is to take risk off the table.”

INSTITUTIONAL COLLAPSE

Fear of being wiped out by another bust does have its benefits: some previously blase people are reconsidering such seemingly safe havens as company-sponsored deferred compensation plans. For years, executives piled money into these plans, figuring they would withdraw it when they retired and were in a lower tax bracket. The only risk was if the company went bankrupt, which would leave the employee as an unsecured creditor.

“You can’t say what are the odds of that happening now, because everything happened last year,” said Joseph Spada, managing director at Summit Financial Resources, an investment adviser in Parsippany, N.J. “Now I’d rather take the compensation and pay the tax now.”

Since laws limit when the money can be withdrawn, many people have little recourse but to stop adding to existing plans.

Annuities were another boom-time product, a popular way for investors to sock away money, comfortable that it would be paid back to them in a steady income stream in retirement. Now there are concerns that insurance companies sold too many, and if an insurer collapsed, its annuity holders would lose much of the money.

This was driven home this fall, when the share price of the Hartford, a huge underwriter of annuities, fell to nearly $4 from more than $60. People who had their annuities with the Hartford began worrying about whether it would collapse.

Most state insurance funds cover insurance losses to around $500,000. People with annuities greater than that would have faced a loss, Mr. Spada said, so now they are spreading their annuity risk around to several insurers.

DECEPTION

Many major frauds of the last year would not have been uncovered so soon if the credit bubble had not burst and forced investors to sell assets. That was the undoing of Bernard L. Madoff, Marc S. Dreier and a host of smaller Ponzi schemers.

Many large investors are now taking more aggressive steps to safeguard their money. Enter Elizabeth Prial, a managing director at Insite Security. She can tell if you’re trying to hide something.

A psychologist and former special agent for the F.B.I., she is trained to detect a range of voluntary and involuntary signs that a person is being deceptive by assessing facial action, involuntary microexpressions, body language and more.

“Traditional due diligence is focused on what the client is being told,” said Ms. Prial, who does similar work for the Department of Defense. “I’m going to be watching the nonverbal cues.”

Having such a highly trained specialist sitting in on an investment meeting may seem extreme, and it certainly is not cheap: her services cost $10,000 a day.

“Investors are more fearful,” said Christopher Falkenberg, a former Secret Service agent and the president of Insite. “They’re willing to invest in more proactive measures to reduce the risk than they were before.”

While the vast majority of people lost money the old-fashioned way - their portfolios lost value – the disclosure of serious fraud scared everyone.

Kevin Dorwin, a principal at Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough, a wealth management firm in San Francisco, said several potential investors had asked if they could bring in their own auditors. It was a first for this request, but the firm agreed.

“Personally, I can’t blame them,” Mr. Dorwin said. But if every new client made the request, he said, the time spent on audits would mean “there would be no one to manage the money.”

CREDITORS

A select group of people are doing their best to save what they have left from creditors.

One result is an increased interest in Delaware asset protection trusts, which allow people to shield money from creditors after the assets have been in the trust for four years.

When these trusts were created in 1997, doctors, lawyers and accountants were drawn to them because they feared their liability insurance would not cover them fully. Today, people starting hedge funds and private equity firms are interested, said Dan Lindley, president of the Northern Trust Company of Delaware. “They say, ‘I want to put some of my assets into this trust and have that be my rainy day fund if the fund performs badly and investors turn on me,’” he said.

This may be hiding money from creditors, but Delaware law permits it so long as the person was unaware of any claims against him when he set up the trust.

Interest is also rising in what Boxwood Strategic Advisors calls its “troubled borrower’s program,” an outgrowth of the firm’s business of advising clients with wealth tied up in a single asset.

When loans were easy to get at low interest rates, many wealthy people borrowed against such assets – restricted stock, for example – to invest in other assets. When the bubble burst, the collateral went down in value and banks either demanded more or started selling the collateral. Investors found themselves in a bind.

Boxwood’s role is to negotiate a solution. “Both sides contributed to this,” said Alec Haverstick II, managing director at Boxwood. “Should you really have leveraged your liquid assets at 75 percent and invested in illiquid assets? It might have been better at 35 or 40 percent. But the banks allowed this.”

Mr. Haverstick says he tries to get the two sides working together. “Isn’t this person better off and aren’t you better off with this person as a continuing pool of economic activity than as a dead body?” he asked.

BUBBLEHEADS

Of course, there will be always be investors who try to time the market. The desire to make back their money trumps their fear of losing more.

Lewis Altfest, president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management in New York, said he had been inundated with clients wanting to buy “disaster stocks” in the belief that they have to go up. He put CIT, A.I.G. and Citibank in this category and said people thought these stocks were unreasonably low and had to rise.

He has told clients that CIT, the troubled small-business lender, might not come back until after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization that would wipe out shareholders. But some clients are undeterred, pointing to Citicorp in the 1990s, when its stock fell to $6 from $50 before rebounding.

“There is some validity to their argument, but I wouldn’t bank my money on it,” he said. “It’s a Las Vegas mentality.”

A corollary to this view is people who own disaster stocks and refuse to sell them. Mr. Dorwin said he had a new client with the bulk of his wealth in a handful of stocks that had all gone down. “He wanted to wait until the stocks went back up in value before diversifying,” he said. “It’s like going uninsured until health care reform passes.”

It took Mr. Dorwin months to persuade the client to sell the losers and reinvest the money more broadly. “People get very attached to their individual stocks,” he said. They also get ideas to invest in things that seem great but that they do not fully understand.

One example of this is currencies, particularly exotic ones. With the dollar’s decline, “people are coming up to me at parties and saying, ‘I don’t do stocks anymore; I’m into currencies,’” Mr. Davidson said. “Speculating in currencies is riskier than stocks.”

So, too, is betting everything on emerging Asia. The argument to do so, Mr. Altfest said, goes like this: “China and India are going to take over the world, so why don’t I put all of my money in the fastest-growing area?” In October 2008, when the view of the region was less sanguine, Mr. Altfest put client money in two Asia funds. One is up nearly 80 percent; the other doubled. Recently he has been invited to the introductions of new Asia funds, he said, and “that’s the sign of overheating. We’ve cut back our original allocations.”

In other words, sometimes a little fear of a rapidly inflating asset is a good thing. You may not get all of the upside, but you might be able to avoid having the bubble burst in your face.

Always Mindful of Finding the Nearest Exit

FREQUENT FLIER

September 07, 2009

By CHRISTOPHER FALKENBERG AS TOLD TO JOAN RAYMOND

When I travel, I am always planning for disaster. I’m not some guy who hates to fly. I actually love to fly. But I can’t turn off the “what ifs” in my brain. I’m a former Secret Service agent and the training is ingrained. And now I own a security company.

Part of being an effective Secret Service agent was having what we liked to call “situational awareness.” It’s basically nothing more than looking around your location, sizing up the people around you, and then thinking of the many things that could go wrong, and what you would do if one of those things happened.

Now I do that on airplanes. I just can’t help myself. I’m actually the guy who always pays attention to the preflight safety briefing. And I actually review the safety card, if only to look at the diagram of exits.

The single most important thing in this process is planning how I am going to get out if things go south during my flight. This is particularly true if I am traveling with my family. I actually visualize how we’re going to get out of an emergency.

There are a few other things I do for safety. I never take off my shoes until we’ve reached cruising altitude, and I make sure they’re on before descent. I encourage my wife to wear flats because it’s hard to move quickly in heels, and being barefoot is worse.

And I always carry a few tools. One of my favorite items is a lithium cell flashlight. When I was a Secret Service agent, I found that a good flashlight is the single most useful tool on the planet. Aircraft evacuations happen so quickly that I don’t know if I ever will need to use it – at least I hope I won’t. But I always bring one with me.

Also in the category of things that I may not have time to use, but still carry anyway, is a smoke mask. The one I have is filled with aloe, which filters toxic chemicals out of smoke.

I’ve never had a problem with the Transportation Security Administration. Flashlights like those I carry aren’t on the list of prohibited items. And the smoke mask is in an airtight foil pouch. The density scanners don’t pick it up because it isn’t dense like explosives, and the X-ray machine can’t see through it.

Because of my training, I also pay attention to other passengers. I am looking for two things. First, obviously, is to look for the maniac who is going to take over the plane. Hopefully, the T.S.A. already took care of him or her. But if not, there may be a few clues.

Second, I look for an inappropriate affect as people board the plane. By that I mean those nonverbal clues that you can sense, like someone being inappropriately anxious or stressed. And I don’t mean the nervous flier. Although I sometimes give them a once over.

I also try to find those people who look like they are in the military or law enforcement. The haircuts are usually a dead giveaway. But so is the carry-on luggage. There are special duffels and other items that military and rescue personnel use, and I can always spot it. If something goes wrong, I can count on those folks to help out.

For all I know, maybe there’s some man or woman on the plane who is checking me out. Maybe they’re thinking, “Why is this guy looking at everybody so carefully?” Like I said, I can’t help myself.

Q. HOW OFTEN DO YOU FLY?

A. At least twice a month, a mix of domestic and international travel.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE AIRPORT?

A. Miami International. There’s a drudgery about it. Sure, it’s big and expansive, but it’s really unpleasant.

Q. OF ALL THE PLACES YOU’VE BEEN, WHAT’S THE BEST?

A. Jamaica. I’ve been there many times for work and for pleasure, and it’s a wonderful combination of colonial-type manners, with a real island vibe.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR SECRET AIRPORT VICE?

A. I don’t know if it’s a vice, but I’m the guy who won’t move if I get a chance to stare at the planes taking off and landing. I’ll hog the window view in a terminal, just because I’m like a little kid and still think it’s incredibly cool.

Don’t Become the Next Erin Andrews: Tips for a Safe Hotel Stay

A Few Simple Steps Can Make Your Next Hotel Stay a lot Safer

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ

October 6, 2009

Hotels often offer a sense of security and comfort when on the road, but when ESPN reporter Erin Andrews checked into the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University last September, that was the last thing she got.

Insurance salesman Michael David Barrett allegedly traveled from his home outside Chicago to Nashville and specifically requested — and got — a room next to the sportscaster at the Nashville Marriott, according to court documents. He then allegedly used a cell phone to record video of Andrews changing while in her room.

It apparently wasn’t the first time Barrett learned the specific hotel Andrews was staying in and recorded her. According to a 35-page criminal complaint filed in a California federal court, in July 2008 he called 14 Milwaukee area hotels until he learned that Andrews would be at the Radisson Airport Hotel. He allegedly got a room there, altered a peephole in Andrews’ room and then proceeded to record her.

Other Celebs Victimized

Andrews is hardly the first well-known person to have a guest stalk her or try to steal items from a hotel room.

In March, a homeless man tried to force his way into actor Jamie Foxx’s room at the AKA Rittenhouse Square hotel in Philadelphia. He allegedly first attempted to get into the hotel by claiming that he was singer Beyonce Knowles’ producer.

In 2003, rapper Nelly had more than $1 million in jewelry stolen from his room at the then Aladdin hotel-casino on the Las Vegas strip. Singer Michelle Branch, who also was staying at the Aladdin for an awards show, reported that computer equipment was stolen from her room.

And while the ease Barrett apparently had in pinpointing Andrews’ hotel and actually getting a room next to Andrews might seem shocking, several security experts said it came as no surprise to them.

Erin Andrews Video Incident Avoidable?

Christopher Falkenberg, a former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service and now president of Insite Security, said getting such information is easy.

“What I suspect happened: He called around and found out where she was staying and said, ‘Oh what room is she in, can I have the room next to her?’ Or said something like: ‘I’m with her party therefore I want to be next to her,’” Falkenberg said.

Computer records of Barrett’s reservation state at the Nashville Marriott, according to the court documents include a line: “INFO GST RQST RM NEXT TO [Andrews.]“

Stephen P. Davis, a former New York City Police Department captain and now head of Davis Investigative Group, said that when an unaffiliated party requests an adjacent room, “That should have set off a question as to why are you asking.”

Davis said the hotel industry is now likely to revisit its security procedures in the reservation process.

The Nashville Marriott — which is not owned or managed by Marriott international — refused comment, instead referring questions to Marriott’s corporate headquarters.

“Our company takes the security and privacy of its guests seriously and we have been cooperating with authorities during the investigation,” John Wolf, Marriott International’s senior director of public relations said in an e-mail to ABC News.

Radisson said in a statement that: “Guess privacy and security are top priorities for Radisson Hotels and Resorts. The property involved in this alleged incident was a franchised hotel which left the Radisson system in September, 2008. As this issue is currently part of a criminal trial, we are unable to provide additional comment at this time.”

The general manager at the hotel, now the Ramada Conference Center Hotel at the Milwaukee Airport, did not return calls seeking comment.

Simple Safety Steps

Most hotel guests probably aren’t going to have people following them on vacation. But even non-celebrities can take a few simple steps to protect themselves and their belongings on a trip.

Joseph A. McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said that the industry probably isn’t going to be able to stop people from calling around to hotels to see if somebody has checked in. Most times, you are going to want such calls to go through to your room.

But he said hotels should not be honoring requests to stay next to certain guests unless they know of a connection.

“There’s no reason to do that,” McInerney said.

Hotel Safety Tips for Celebrities Work for Everyone

Guests should always use a chain lock, in addition to the deadbolt, to lock the door and protect the hotel room from people who might have master keys. Security experts advise using that extra lock at all times in the room, even when sleeping.

McInerney also said that if you ever question the identity of somebody knocking on your door, call down to the front desk.

But overall, he said, hotels are safe places to stay.

“In light of this incident, people should feel very comfortable in hotels. The guests and the employee safety is the number one priority of hotels and hotel companies,” McInerney said. “We don’t know all the allegations on this and what might have broken down, but we have roughly a million-and-a-half people every night staying at hotels. The incident level might be very, very, very minuscule.”

Camera Recording Equipment Easy to Find

Safety starts in the lobby. When checking in, make sure that the front-desk clerk doesn’t announce your room number.

“The lobby itself is a great place to commit a crime but is also a place where it’s difficult to have your normal antenna up to be sensitive to crime,” Falkenberg said. “Be really aware of people who are around you. You don’t want other people in the lobby finding out what room you are in.”

Just with that little bit of information, somebody could use a lobby phone, call your room and say the management is about to bring up a welcome gift, then knock on your door minutes later and have a gun in your face.

Today, stalkers can easily buy all sorts of tiny cameras and listening devices Falkenberg said.

For his corporate clients or celebrities worried about spying he suggests switching hotels or at least switching rooms frequently. For high-target clients, his staff will often book the adjacent room for added security. Never stay in rooms with connecting doors unless you know the person in that room, he suggested.

“The Erin Andrews case is an example of how easy it is to pull off crimes that previously had been in the era of James Bond,” Falkenberg said. “It’s not as though Barrett had access to NSA level equipment. He didn’t. You can buy a large variety of items on the Internet. They’re very, very small.”

Stay on Higher Floors, and Carry a Flashlight

Davis, of Davis Investigative Group, said guests should also take precautions against hotel staff. Many hotel employees have pass keys that give them access to any room. The use of those keys can be traced, but that is often too late.

Consider the recent case of a housekeeping manager at the upscale Jumeirah Essex House hotel in New York who allegedly tried to rape an investment executive as she slept, and then stabbed and strangled her when she apparently fought back.

Davis said that somebody trying to break down a hotel door in a hallway is probably going to be noticed. But if it is an adjoining room, they have all the time and the privacy in the world.

When traveling overseas, Falkenberg said guests should worry about something else: hotel design.

International building codes and fire standards are not the same as in the United States. Try to pick a modern hotel with sprinklers. He said it’s better to be high enough off the ground that people can’t easily break in but not so high that fire truck ladders can’t reach you.

Finally, he said, always carry a flashlight.

Double trouble

FLEXIBILITY SEEN AS WAY TO FIGHT SWINE FLU

September 27, 2009

When Donna M. Tomasetti heard stories last spring about the H1N1 influenza, she headed for a Walmart store to buy hand sanitizer and found the shelves stripped bare by other shoppers.

The experience stuck with the director of human resources at Advanced Cable Ties Inc. of Gardner, who has since made sure her employer is stocked up with hospital-grade cleaners, medical gloves, face masks and, yes, lots of hand sanitizer.

“I said, ‘Oh, my God, if people panic and they do want hand sanitizer, I’m going to make sure I’ve got it for my people,’ “Mrs. Tomasetti said.

As public health authorities caution of a resurgence of H1N1 flu cases this fall and the federal government readies distribution of millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine, employers are girding for the disease. Some are installing hand sanitizer stations, urging workers to sneeze or cough into their arms, adjusting emergency plans and holding clinics for employees. Advanced Cable Ties even held a nutrition seminar for workers, drawing a connection between healthy eating and disease prevention.

As public health authorities caution of a resurgence of H1N1 flu cases this fall and the federal government readies distribution of millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine, employers are girding for the disease. Some are installing hand sanitizer stations, urging workers to sneeze or cough into their arms, adjusting emergency plans and holding clinics for employees. Advanced Cable Ties even held a nutrition seminar for workers, drawing a connection between healthy eating and disease prevention.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts, an employer group, has been raising the issue of preparedness with members since last spring, urging them to consider changes in operations such as telecommuting or policies that could encourage positive behavior, such as staying home when sick.

“Companies really need to take a hard look at these policies,” said Karen M. Choi, AIM senior vice president of management and human resource services. “This may be a year where they have to relax some policies to deal with the flu.”

H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, emerged earlier this year in Mexico and quickly spread across the globe. Like the ordinary seasonal flu, the H1N1 flu can make individuals miserable with a cough, fever, sore throat, nausea, aches and pains. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 46,329 confirmed cases of H1N1 this year through Sept. 19.

Many businesses routinely prepare for disasters ranging from hurricanes to hackers. Yet a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that only one-third of businesses surveyed nationally believed they could operate without severe problems if half their workers were absent for two weeks because of the H1N1 flu.

The H1N1 flu requires businesses to think differently about how they would keep essential functions operating over a long period under difficult conditions, according to Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, a New York City company that advises businesses on security.

“The important thing about planning for the swine flu is it’s not particularly lethal,” said Mr. Falkenberg, a lawyer and former Secret Service agent. “Everyone comes back to work. The problem is it’s highly contagious and also quite severe. The most proactive business continuity approach is to plan operations, to prepare for a long time to accommodate an absentee rate of 20 to 40 percent.”

Hanover Insurance Group Inc., which employs about 4,000 people, including about 1,900 workers in Worcester, has gone even further by developing plans for a 30 percent to 50 percent reduction in staffing. Solutions include allowing employees to work from home, transferring calls to other Hanover centers if one center experiences significant absenteeism, adjusting travel policies and even considering whether visitors would be allowed at Hanover.

“This isn’t something we just thought about,” said Jay Johnson, Hanover vice president of real estate and business continuity planning. “We’ve had core team meetings since the beginning of spring. Keeping core operations going is what this is all about.”

There could be legal implications for businesses, too, according to lawyer Joseph T. Bartulis Jr., chairman of the labor and employment law practice group at the Worcester firm of Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple, who is leading a free seminar for employers on employment law issues, including H1N1, on Oct. 6 at the Beechwood Hotel. Could an employer even ask a worker if he or she were ill?

“My advice to employers is the questions should be pointed, such that they are job-related and they’re consistent with job necessity,” said Mr. Bartulis. “At the end of the day, you want to be able to make sure they are able to safely do their job.”

Dr. Elizabeth C. Malko, chief medical officer of the Worcester-based Fallon Community Health Plan, said the insurer is fielding calls from employers for information on H1N1 coverage but is not now considering H1N1 vaccination clinics at work sites. Fallon will, however, hold clinics at work sites offering seasonal flu shots, she said, and is encouraging employers to consider some of the things Fallon is doing.

“We’ve relaxed our sick time policies to be more flexible, to give people a little more wiggle room,” Dr. Malko said. “We’ve told people, if you’re sick don’t come in. We’ve also told them that if you come in and are sick, we will send you home.”

Staying home would be harder on some businesses. The Guild of St. Agnes, an agency that provides child care to about 1,100 youngsters in Central Massachusetts, has more than 200 employees, including many who are cross-trained to step into other jobs and available to work at other centers, said Sharon A. Woodbury, director of human resources and public relations.

Yet the agency, which is installing additional hand sanitizers in facilities and plans to send information to parents on H1N1, must maintain minimum staffing levels in its child care settings.

“I know a lot of other organizations have policies where a person can work from home with a computer,” Ms. Woodbury said. “But when you talk about early childhood education, you have to be here.”

The situation is similar at Rehabilitative Resources Inc. of Sturbridge, an employer of about 480 workers that provides services in Central Massachusetts to people with disabilities and has a history of stepping into emergencies, such as the December 2008 ice storm. To prepare for H1N1, the agency has adapted plans it developed several years ago when Asian bird flu loomed, giving consideration to whether clients should attend day programs if illness spreads and making sure that a plan exists to relocate every client if necessary.

Chief Executive Bonita Keefe-Layden, who was in the Army reserves for 30 years, said her military background has her looking at H1N1 as a potential mass casualty event and her agency’s plans as something that workers would “surge on” in an emergency.

Preparation, she said, “is difficult. It takes a lot of planning. It takes a lot of resources.”

And flexibility.

4 Steps Security Can Take to Prevent Kidnapping

THINK KIDNAPPING IS NOT A RISK FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION? THINK AGAIN. KIDNAPPING AND HOSTAGE EXPERT CHRIS FALKENBERG TELLS US WHY THE THREAT IS REAL, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO MINIMIZE THE RISK

By JOAN GOODCHILD

SENIOR EDITOR

APRIL 8, 2009

As the economic crisis continues to heat up, Chris Falkenberg believes the potential for kidnapping will, too.

“The biggest risk for kidnapping of adults is among people in the financial services business,” said Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, a New York based consultancy that offers security services and analysis. “Particularly those who have a great deal of publicity about their wealth and their business success.” Kidnappers are motivated by money, and potential victims are the people who make the most, said Falkenberg, who noted that executive compensation is easier than ever find thanks to SEC disclosure rules.

Assessing an organization’s risk for a potential executive or staff abduction involves several factors. While executives may be more at risk in the United States, in many other countries, all employees face danger, especially if the country is impoverished. Falkenberg, a former Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service, outlines preventative measures companies can consider to minimize kidnapping risk.

Counter surveillance, according to Falkenberg, basically takes the regular security guard position and “turns it inside out.” In addition to having personnel manning the gate, a counter-surveillance program has personnel who are watching to see who is watching others.

A good program could include a team that conducts surveillance at a facility, residence, or any given location, and keeps tabs on who is watching the target. This means looking for people who might be walking back in forth frequently in front of a location, taking video or photographs, counting footsteps to determine the measurements of a given location.

“Anything someone is doing from a public area to gain information which could be used in a crime and detecting who is doing that,” said Falkenberg to describe the kind of intelligence that should be gathered.

A counter-surveillance program might also use CCTV infrastructure in a proactive way, he said. “CCTV is primarily utilized in the forensic capacity, once a crime has occurred,” said Falkenberg. “But a counter-surveillance team can use all of the intelligent video in a proactive means, particularly if you have the ability to identify cars and license plates to keep an eye out for who seems to be in your perimeter, collecting information about scheduling, comings and goings,and transportation routes.”

Utilize GPS

Falkenberg recommends companies put in place technology to be able to receive GPS transmissions from cell phones or emergency GPS transmitters. While this technology may only go so far because the device will likely be taken from the victim, in some scenarios, it could still aid in rescue. And as technology advances, GPS will become even more useful.

“There is some technology coming out in which you can program a cell phone to send out a distress signal,” said Falkner. “What we are using with some clients is a handheld GPS transmitter which you can essentially use as a portable panic button. It triangulates to where it transmits. That can be used for a security department to learn where a kidnapping has occurred.”

Train employees on how to behave

As Falkenberg pointed out before, kidnappings are planned events. Kidnappers don’t often consider what they will do if the victim takes some drastic action to thwart the abduction. “It’s really infrequent, in the history of kidnapping, if victim runs away, or if they make a u-turn, that kidnappers will actually pursue a victim and kidnap in a static environment.”

When an event takes place, victims find themselves forced into vehicles with commands shouted at them like “Get in the car! We are going to kill you!” While this is terrifying, it is actually much easier to turn the situation to your advantage at that point than it is once you are incarcerated, said Falkenberg.

But this kind of reaction to threats is not second nature to people, said Falkenberg. It is something that has to be learned. He recommends talking with employees about what to do if threatened and rehearsing it. It is important, he said, for people to feel comfortable that if there is a kidnapping, they can react, have some muscle memory of how to react, and have some confidence that it is the correct step.

“It is a great challenge to train people to think effectively during emergencies,” said Falkenberg. “But it is very important because you have a real chance in the beginning to terminate the situation. If you can, you are much better off than getting in the car, or the van, where the realm of outcomes becomes worse.”

Falkenberg also recommends companies train employees about how to act as hostages in the event that they are abducted. Tips include touching everything in sight to leave lots of fingerprints and talking to the kidnappers so they see you as a human, not an object. Falkenberg recommends mentioning family, children, and other personal facts that may aid in getting them to see you as a person.

Consider families, too

“It’s one thing to kidnap the president of a company,” said Falkenberg. “Who knows what will happen? But if it involves the president’s kid? That situation has to be resolved immediately and the kidnappers know it. It is a far greater danger.”

Potential vulnerabilities don’t stop with the executive. Companies need to consider the family component of protection for executives, said Falkenberg. A crisis management and continuity plan for the family outside the office is key.

However, the family component can’t really be addressed with the same techniques used for employees because families are not going to tolerate the kind of protection that c-level executives tolerate at work. Also, it is just not cost effective. But Falkenberg believes there are several ways an organization can improve security for the executive and his/her family outside of work by leveraging existing resources. Training family about potential dangers and how to behave if someone attempts to abduct them is essential. But so is training of household staff members.

“Many executive have a household staff. They can be trained in the tools and skills of counter surveillance,” said Falkenberg. “They may have more information about the comings and goings than the family, particularly because some executives have multiple homes.”

Swine Flu: What Business Owners Should Know

By MATTHEW BANDYK

APRIL 28, 2009

Have you seen people wearing masks during your morning commute the past few days? Fears about the swine flu has caused some people to change their daily habits. I talked to Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, about what the possible pandemic means for the business owner. And yes, walking around in a mask is a complete overreaction.

But, Falkenberg argues, overreaction is not the main problem. Even if the swine flu turns out to another overblown panic, if it inspires your business to develop or improve upon a crisis management plan, then you’ve put your business in a better position. “If you don’t have a crisis management plan, it’s time to develop one,” says Falkenberg.

Fortunately, crisis plans for more conventional disasters–such as hurricanes or floods–can also provide a modicum of protection in the case of a pandemic, Falkenberg says. So that means that many of the strategies I covered in this article from September about disaster protection would also apply here.

For example, a flood or pandemic might present the problem of employees not being able to come to an actual office. So the key is having a protocol that allows flexibility in those situations–so your business can still get the things done it needs to get done even if the usual flow of work is altered.

Just because the swine flu is a unique occurrence does not mean that preparing for it can’t be done in a way that makes your business ready for any number of emergencies.

Insite opens Greenwich Office

By L SAMUEL PFEIFLE

JUNE 11, 2009

Insite Security, a security and risk-management firm specializing in high-networth clients, has opened a second office here to better serve clients here and in surrounding communities like New Caanan, Cornwall, and Stamford. According to CNNMoney.com, Greenwich has a median income of nearly $150,000 and the average home is worth roughly $1.5 million.

The new office is lead by William Whiteside, a former Secret Service agent and Deputy U.S. Marshal. He reports to Insite owner and president Chris Falkenberg, also a former Secret Service agent.

“It’s certainly true that the types of crimes that the wealthy are victimized by increase in times of economic downturn,”said Falkenberg about the reasons for his company’s growth. But he also credits the “low-voltage revolution,” and the AV integrated systems that are now in every high-end home. “Every job we do comes with an AV consultant now,” he said, “which wasn’t the case five years ago.”

Insite now has seven full-time employees, all of them former high-level police officers or federal security employees, and the company designs risk-mitigation polices along with security systems, which are then contracted out to integrators for installation. Falkenberg feels a customer is “best served by having an independent party draft the specifications and then send that out to market for bid, certify them, make sure they’re competent, and then commission the project.”

Falkenberg said infrared technology has become particularly useful and reasonably priced lately, though the cameras can be difficult to make fit a highend home’s architecture and look. “They putting millions into museum-quality design,” he said, “and so we can’t just run with commercial security equipment, even though we need commercial level performance.”

This is just one of many difficulties unique to high-wealth homes. Considering the size of many of these homes’ staffs, “how do you maintain even basic physical security?” Falkenberg posits. “We have to use selective zoning on different entrances, keeping back or side entrances on a 24-hour zone.” Many times, however, a resident will turn the system off completely when home, but “it’s a 10,000-square-foot home,” Falkenberg said, “there’s no way someone can hear a break in on the other side of the house.”

However, these are problems that need solving more and more often, as “there’s an enhanced feeling of vulnerability” now among high-net-worth families and individuals, especially because of the increased amount of information available about such people on the Internet.

And Falkenberg predicted it would only get worse. “There’s a concern about kidnapping,” he said, something that’s a problem for the wealthy in South and Latin America, but has, as yet, not been a frequent problem in the United States.

How to Surveillance-Proof Your Hotel Room

SECURITY EXPERT SHARES LATEST IN HIDDEN TECHNOLOGY AND WAYS TO FIND IT TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY

By CBS STAFF

JULY 23, 2009

Would you know if your hotel room had hidden cameras?

On “The Early Show” Thursday, the president of Insite Security, Chris Falkenberg, showed how easy it is for cameras, like the one suspected to have taped sportscaster Erin Andrews, to be concealed — and how people can be proactive in protecting their privacy.

 Several devices may be used to secrete cameras. In a hotel set-up, Falkenberg showed “Early Show” co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez how clocks and alarm clocks, smoke detectors cameras and mini cameras may be hidden.

“You would never know,” Falkenberg said. “Cameras have become so miniaturized that it’s easy to secret them into small, everyday objects.” Clocks, Falkenberg said, may carry cameras inside. If you look closely, Falkenberg said, you can see the camera. And these cameras aren’t rigged this way. You can buy them online, and they have nightvision capabilities and motion detection. To avoid being taped with an electronic device like this, Falkenberg suggested bringing your own electronics to hotels and removing as many as you can that you don’t need.

Also, if there are two smoke detectors in a room Falkenberg said something may be very wrong. A smoke detector, he explained, can give a 360 degree view of the room, and more than one camera may be stashed away inside. Mini-cameras, Falkenberg said, need a hole, so you should look for holes that don’t belong in your room. You should look for wires, Falkenberg said. These cameras, he said, aren’t that high quality, and will be somewhere that has a good view, probably anywhere from eye- to hip-level. Mini-cameras, also known as pinhole cameras, Falkenberg said, are the type of camera someone used to tape Andrews. He said the camera has a very small aperture and requires only a small hole to shoot video, and may be used anywhere, including flower bouquets.

Falkenberg suggested when you go into a hotel room, you should make sure it’s consistent with what a normal hotel room looks like. He said, “Be cognizant of how many devices are in there — devices which can be rigged with cameras.”

But what should you do if you think you are under surveillance?

If you believe that you are being taped, Falkenberg told Rodriguez, you should change your room immediately. Listen to your inner voice, Falkenberg said, and take action.

Modern Clock DVR Nightvision Hidden Camera

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Smoke Detector

Every house, apartment, or business has a smoke detector. That’s why no one will question the presence of a Smoke Detector Hidden Camera with DVR for high quality home security or office security. This fully functional smoke detector has no giveaway signs that it’s also a full color CCD Hidden Camera and DVR. Boasting a high quality Sony CCD image sensor, The Smoke Detector Hidden Camera with DVR will capture professional grade security video, perfect for anybody hoping to catch criminals, vandals, or simply keep an eye on their assets and property.

Mega Mini Pro

High Resolution Video Quality Captures Audio/Video Even In Low Light About the size of a pack of gum, this miniature camcorder is perfect for covert operations on-the-move. Completely battery powered and self-contained, this camera with a built-in DVR can capture up to 3.2 (8GB) hours of video. One touch or sound activated recording makes it easy to capture any important moments, on-the-fly. What makes this camera different is the high resolution 640 x 480 resolution at a full 30 fps. With such high resolution video, you can be sure to capture every detail even in low light situations.

Camera Finder Hidden Camera Detector

Use the Camera Finder Hidden Camera Detector to quickly scan a room and locate all hidden cameras, no matter how covert they are. The Hidden Camera Finder locates all cameras, wired or wireless, to help you protect your privacy.Perfect for dressing rooms.

Tips for safety when flying solo: Making sure your kid boards the right plane

By ROSEMARY BLACK

STAFF WRITER

JUNE 19, 2009

Summer is typically the season when parents decide to let their kids board airplanes alone for trips to grandma’s house or adventures to sleep away camp. But after two unaccompanied girls were placed on the wrong Continental Express flights over the weekend, parents may well wonder if it makes sense to let their little ones fly solo.

Parents pay the airlines an unaccompanied minor fee to help steer their kids in the right direction, but experts say they need to give their children plenty of advice too and what to do if they run into trouble.

“Empower your child to not be shy and to speak up,” said Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, a security consulting firm. “Train your child to remain alert, vocal and to pay attention. Teach her that she should not just automatically accept the situation, and if she feels that things are not going right, she should ask the flight attendant,” he said.

The mother of an 8-year-old girl who was put on the wrong plane in one of the recent misrouting incidents said the travel snafu was due to “total incompetence and a lack of caring” by Continental Airlines, the Associated Press reported. Wendy Babineaux reported “getting the run around” from the airline while attempting to find out how her daughter, Taylor Williams, left Houston and wound up in Fayetteville, Ark. instead of arriving in Charlotte, N.C., where her father was waiting for her.

A day after Williams’ mishap, 10-year-old Miriam Kamens landed in Newark after a solo flight when she was supposed to be going to Cleveland to see her grandparents. Both families had paid a $75 “unaccompanied minors” fee, AP reported.

Michael Bennett, general manager for Cheapflights USA, advises parents have flying alone carry a notebook in their carry-on bags. “In the notebook, write down all the what ifs,” he said.

“What if there is a delay at the gate? What if they have to go to the bathroom mid-flight but the Seatbelt light is on? And let your child know that it is okay to ask questions to the people in the uniforms who will be taking care of them,” he said.

It’s also a good idea to give your child a cell phone and activate the GPS tracking on it, Falkenberg said.

Shooting in fitness center preventable?

By LAISCHEN STELTER

AUGUST 11, 2009

The tragic shooting yesterday at a fitness center here that claimed the lives of three women and injured nine more has security professionals wondering if such crimes are preventable.

Currently, police have not established whether the man who sprayed more than 36 bullets in an all-women’s exercise class had any existing connection with any of the women targeted. The absence of a prior connection is the most troubling aspect of this incident, said Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, a consulting firm.

“Some crimes are unpreventable and this may be one of them,” he said. While incidents like this may not be predictable and therefore unpreventable, it doesn’t mean that fitness centers, and similar facilities, shouldnt be prepared for such scenarios.

Training employees about what to do in a shooting situation could possibly reduce the number of injured, but likely would not have thwarted the situation, said Falkenberg. “Training staff about what they should do if they’re near an active shooter situation [is a possible solution],” he said. However, because fitness centers tend to have a high turnover of employees, training them in such security measures may be difficult.

Stationing guards or installing screening technology is also not viable in this environment, he said. And while gyms do tend to collect personal information from patrons for billing purposes, it is not feasible, nor possible, to conduct background checks or other screening measures.

One of the only other possible solutions to preventing an incident of this nature is to bring more awareness to the public. “People need to get over their inclination that things will be fine and not just assume things are alright,” he said. “Most people are conditioned to dispense with their internal misgivings and we try to instill in our clients the importance of training people to act on their intuition. If something appears to be off, it probably is. They must empower people to make that call.”

TRAVELING THROUGH TOUGH NEIGHBORHOODS DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN RISKING AT ALL – AS LONG AS YOU’RE PREPARED

By STACEY MARCUS

AUGUST 17, 2009

Safety and security are obvious priorities in your travel plans. There are times, however, when traveling in and around high-crime neighborhoods to get to your ultimate destination can be unavoidable. How can you best ensure your safety?
We asked Christopher Falkenberg, President of Insite Security, what the best ways are to protect yourself while traveling through dangerous areas. Falkenberg is a former Secret Service agent and represents well-known celebrities like Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart. During his tenure with the Secret Service, he served on the detail for President Bill Clinton.

Mitigate risk through research

You can be diligent in your pre-travel plans by checking out your route on the consulate and embassy websites or by hiring a private company to conduct a travel security analysis. It’s important to have a clear understanding of possible danger. For example, there may be an increase in street crime at certain times of the day or there may be a specific predator in the area.

Travel under the radar

While most savvy travelers know not to carry large amounts of cash and to properly insure valuables, it’s also important to jettison the Rolex and leave the Gucci luggage at home. Make every effort not to stand out in the crowd as criminals target victims who look like they have a lot to lose.

Secure transportation in advance

Make sure you get a photograph of the person who is responsible for your transportation at each leg of your trip and have a code planned to verify the identity of your driver.

Pay attention when on the move

Falkenberg comments that most crimes take place when one is traveling from point A to point B. He notes that every presidential assassination (except Lincoln’s) has unfolded in motion. People are especially vulnerable when traveling because it is easy to let one’s guard down.

Carry copies of passports and read security guidelines

Having the proper forms accessible and knowing the rules are simple steps to increase your safety.

Act like a spy

If there is a kidnapping attempt, the best chance for escape is at the beginning. Be aware of your surroundings, and if there are any means to an escape, take them immediately. Lindsay Moran, a former CIA intelligence officer, offers the following tip: “CIA officers undergo extensive training to be able to determine if they’re being followed. The average traveler can employ some basic spy tactics as well. Be aware of who’s around you and make a mental note if you see the same person more than once. Use the reflective property of storefront glass and mirrors to see if anyone’s behind you. Cross the street, even if you do not have to, so you’re afforded the opportunity to look both ways. If you think you are being followed, move quickly into a store or call someone. I always walk with my phone in my hand for this purpose.”