Intelligence tradecraft in the private sector has expanded significantly. Done right, it supports strategic decision-making related to risk and security, as well as strategic opportunity, and positions organizations ahead of events.

While there are countless benefits to contracting security, there is an oft-cited drawback: loss of control. However, as the following case study shows, for companies that want to retain it, control and outsourcing need not be mutually exclusive.

Since digital payments and cash have similar environmental impacts, supporting one or the other is an unwise strategy to make payment systems more environmentally friendly. Indeed, tilting in one direction or the other can create an infrastructure imbalance that makes things worse.

Dozens of countries still impose on restrictions on foreign ownership of private security companies, a position that they may wish to re-think for reasons of security, economic development, professionalization, technological innovation, and consumer choice.

The need to ensure that cash is maintained as a viable payment method is being advocated by civil society organizations, ordinary citizens, and—increasingly—by legislative bodies.

When crafting innovative approaches to social challenges from urbanization, public officials should consider research that proves private security is an effective supplement to public police, including for deterring crime, helping individuals in need, and controlling disorder.

A company’s spending on security may not directly generate company profits, but that doesn’t mean it can’t benefit a company’s share price or boosts its revenue.

Evidenced by communication failures that nearly ended in Trump’s assassination, joint security arrangements require specific attention to coordinating activities, including development of a common vision, process standardization, joint training initiatives, and internal and external communication.

The importance of maintaining and supporting the cash infrastructure has never seemed more important than in the wake of this week's catastrophic IT outage.

Regarding the attempted assassination of former US President Trump, it is easy to think—if a specific individual or group of people had needed to sign-off on a specific decision to leave that rooftop unprotected—that a different decision would have been made.

What if we turned to security workers for help and found they weren’t there?

Strict reliance on digital payments can make societies less resilient, highlighted by recent outages in March that forced some businesses to close shop and hit McDonald's and Tesco, among others.

Crowds possess enormous destructive power as trampling tragedies prove, so major events or gatherings demand well-trained security personnel and adequate planning that includes studying pedestrian traffic flows and circulation routes.

In pursuit of its mission to forge practical and equitable security standards, the Ligue now has a place on an ISO technical committee that works on various projects related to security and resilience.

A decision not to implement recommended security measures should be part of a thoughtful process, one that is equally robust as approving security projects or expenditures.

European Consumer Protection Ministers, as well as those in Germany, recently highlighted the need to safeguard access to cash to protect consumers and ensure a resilient retail payment system.

The Ligue’s review of Government Transparency Institute data suggests that public tendering for guard services must substantially improve, as practices in those tenders are worse than in tenders for comparable services.

Financial analysts say they are encouraged by what they see regarding business opportunities and financial activity in the physical security industry. This article examines financial activity in the security industry and highlights key trends to look for moving forward. (This article was originally published in 2023 and has been updated.)

The International Security Ligue was represented at the State of Security Conference at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a high-profile and important industry event.

The world’s critical infrastructure is a greater target and more vulnerable than ever, facts that demand a comprehensive approach to protection that aligns physical and cybersecurity and requires collaboration on many fronts. This Q&A primer outlines issues involved and provides entry-level context to a pressing global security challenge.

It's slowly changing, but security is a male-dominated profession. Women already in the profession believe certain initiatives—which are not universal—could encourage more women to enter and remain in security.

Utilizing the expertise of a contract security firm is tempting, but the transition can be off-putting. Here are 6 steps that a major healthcare group took that it says helped them to successfully make the change.

The International Security Ligue (Ligue) has appointed Tanja Kulisch-Ziemens as of May 2024 as its new Secretary General for the Cash Chapter of the Ligue—a position that has recently been created to address the current disruptive challenges of the industry.

A stubborn and increasing source of turnover—somewhat “hidden” from the industry—results from new security hires who never report for work or resign before Day 60.

A little more than 100 days into his tenure as the first Director General of the International Security Ligue, we caught up with Stefan Huber to learn where he sees the Ligue focusing its efforts in the months ahead.

A global pharmaceutical company’s security executive used a novel approach to better understand how much value a new access credentialing system was creating for his company.

If adopted, Costa Rica will attract foreign investment, improve quality of security services in its country, and enhance national security.

Security officer quality takes center stage at the most critical of times, from disruptions at shareholder meetings to campus protests. Managed correctly, such events may be quickly forgotten. Handled poorly, and they can gain media attention and do lingering damage to an organization’s reputation.

A 40-year-old man went on a stabbing rampage April 13 at a crowded shopping mall in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, underscoring the challenge of predicting and preventing random attacks in spaces open to the public. What can “soft targets” do?

Global contest encourages security workers to share what they like about their job.

From Melbourne to Hyderabad, citizens are voicing objections to curtailing the freedom to pay in cash

Legislators in Los Angeles (USA) are re-writing current city codes with the goal of improving public safety while simultaneously freeing up police to focus on important crime issues.

A new study on the scope and breadth of the global physical security sector indicates the industry is vibrant market, has regional variations, and includes a few surprises.

Company security leaders—as a group—do an insufficient job promoting the value of their function, according to research. Security’s full range of benefits are still largely unrecognized. What should security leaders do to change that?

Evolving international issues are impacting the security of supply lines, requiring organizations to integrate security throughout supply chain activities. But which solutions yield business value beyond protection?

Some service providers count on consumers to skip due diligence when contracting for services, which results in lower quality work and more consumer complaints. Here is how that plays out in the security sector and what organizations should do to be more informed security consumers.

All the old reasons for employee deviance still exist today. But there are new reasons for it, too, including less loyalty being exchanged between workers and their employers, a growing mindset of entitlement among younger workers, and greater opportunities to profit from dishonesty.

When asked to identify the most significant global risks facing the world in the next two years, experts rank cyber insecurity fourth—more worrisome than interstate armed conflict and inflation. But while most of the focus on cyber risks is on digital tools and technological one upmanship, people remain a consistent threat to government and business information and intellectual property. Because malicious insiders often act within a normal range of their duties, prevention requires a holistic security approach.