Homeland Literacy
Security — from both a personal and a corporate perspective — has become more important lately. Recent books take on physical protection systems and how to protect oneself when traveling abroad.
Terrorism and Personal Security: Reduce Your Chances of Becoming a Target provides executives and government officials with the knowledge to decrease their risks overseas. International business activities have grown and are now required of most business executives and government officials, causing personal security to become more important. Business travelers need to be aware of threats in order to protect themselves.
The authors say they wrote the book to assist travelers in identifying risks and taking appropriate precautions. Both authors have experience in international business travel and security issues. William M. Epps handled security and terrorist issues while working for the CIA in its Counter-Terrorist Center, and after leaving the CIA, he began lecturing throughout the country on security issues for the international business traveler. Alan J. Beard has experience in international business and security issues in both the government and private sector.
This book is written as a handbook for business professionals and others who must travel internationally for work. The first chapter of five features an introduction, and then the book discusses how to combat threats while traveling abroad. The next four chapters explain how to lower one’s profile while traveling, working or living abroad, provides travel tips, provides tips on how to adjust to living or traveling abroad and explains international terrorism.
The book provides an overview of terrorists — reasons for their attacks and their methods — to help readers grasp the threat when traveling, working or living aboard. The book explains how to decrease the risk of an attack, how to handle being attacked and how to survive in a hostage situation. It acts as a resource for executives and government officials.
Vulnerability Assessment of Physical Protection Systems approaches the subject from start to finish. Using guidelines set out in the author’s previous book, Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection Systems, the current volume looks at the parts of vulnerability assessment, such as negotiating tasks with the customer, project management and planning, team membership, step-by-step details for performing data collection and analysis and notes for design improvements. The author lists examples used by Sandia National Laboratories during the last 30 years for customers including government organizations, dam and water services, prisons, schools, communities and chemical companies. The book provides a companion Web site, which can be used in planning, performing and reporting of vulnerability assessment.
The book is an extension of Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection, released in April 2001, which introduced the overall process of physical protection systems. This book looks at the application of the process and principles of physical protection systems. The first chapter of 12 features an introduction, and then the book discusses physical protection system principles. Later it discusses topics including getting started, process inputs, data collection, analysis and reporting and using results. Data collection is divided into six chapters, which focus on intrusion detection subsystem, alarm assessment subsystem, entry control subsystem, alarm communication and display subsystem, delay subsystem and response subsystem.
The book provides an effective explanation of vulnerability assessment in order to address the fundamental objective for a security system: To protect assets. The book contends there is no reason why enterprises cannot have effective security that also meets regulations and policies.
