Community engagement vital to prevent ‘ripple effect’ of terrorism

Recent attacks show that governments must ensure adequate communication to – and between – communities to protect from increasingly-sophisticated terror attacks, experts have said.

Speaking in a panel debate at IFSEC International 2017, Stephen Mackenzie, director of Mackenzie risk management said  the “whole philosophy has moved” on counter-terrorism following attacks in Manchester and London.

“We’re trying to make our counter-terrorism strategy much more public and transparent to engage the community. We’re seeing the balance between organisational response and the response of the ordinary citizen.”

“With the rise in recent terrorist events we’re working to get better information out into the public domain, but we’re playing catch-up.”

His view was backed by the Canadian perspective of Bonnie Butlin, co-founder and executive director, Security Partner’s Forum.

Preparing for the 150^th anniversary of Canada has “highlighted the importance of counter-terrorism in a new way”, said Butlin.

“We’re seeing trends for sectors of the economy to start working together like never before,” she said. “Typically reputational risks are so high that they are a powerful disincentive to sharing information, but if then one business gets hit it might ripple all the way through for lack of sharing.”

Butlin also noted that the lines between physical and cyber security are becoming increasingly blurred.

“We have discovered a number of IMSI devices, or fake cell towers, which will absorb the calls to emergency services and prevent them responding,” she said. “But we don’t know who is responsible.”

However Dato’ Amar Singh Ishar Singh, Kuala Lumpur police chief, Royal Malaysia Police, believes an even more robust policy than community engagement is required.

Singh, who deals with the growing terrorist threat in Colombo, said police ”must be much more aggressive, rather than waiting for terrorists to come to us”.

“You can have all the defensive strategy you want, being ready to respond with the army and police. But we need to be aggressive – we target possible terrorists groups online and in Kuala Lumpur alone we have made more than 300 arrests.”

Listen to the IFSEC Insider podcast!

Each month, the IFSEC Insider (formerly IFSEC Global) Security in Focus podcast brings you conversations with leading figures in the physical security industry. Covering everything from risk management principles and building a security culture, to the key trends ahead in tech and initiatives on diversity and inclusivity, the podcast keeps security professionals up to date with the latest hot topics in the sector.

Available online, and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, tune in for an easy way to remain up to date on the issues affecting your role.

Listen to the podcast today