In the 19th century, Karl Benz, creator of Mercedes-Benz (and the first person to legally operate an automobile on public roads), predicted the global market for his invention would be limited by the lack of qualified drivers.

Fast-forward to 2001 and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.  Approximately 3,000 people lost their lives in that single, horrifying moment.  The world reacted.  The US reacted by creating Homeland Security and leveraging all their resources to prevent a future attack.

It is interesting to note however; that 3,000 people lose their lives due to traffic fatalities in the US every month!   Even more ironic is that, after 9/11, traffic fatalities increased 9% at a time when police officers were being pulled from traffic safety duties to work on Homeland Security.  In the 3 years after 9/11, there were over 100,000 traffic fatalities compared to only 60 terrorism related deaths, none of which were on American soil.  Were the right resources being allocated where they are most effective?

History has shown that Karl Benz’s prediction was right.  Statistically, nearly all traffic fatalities are the result of driver error, not mechanical failure or weather conditions.  While weather conditions may increase the risk of an accident, how the driver reacts and interacts with the weather plays an integral part of the outcome.  Society’s embrace of the automobile is a matter of economics over practicality, of convenience over skill.  The costs are obvious.

We understand the need to hire a plumber to fix a leak or a mechanic to fix your transmission.  The same applies when conducting a qualified, competent and airtight investigation. Investigations and subsequent employee, union, criminal or civil hearings have become exceedingly more complicated.  Combine this with a savvier workforce who have a wealth of information at their fingertips, and this results in employers needing to dot their i’s and cross their t’s now more than ever.  While the old adage, “anyone who has themselves as a lawyer has a fool for a client”, still rings true today.

Whether conducting surveillance, investigations or subject interviews, the unique challenges of operating under local and federal laws, employment and union guidelines, human rights expectations can be overwhelming if you are inexperienced in these areas.

• Liability by not following court accepted guidelines
• Legal requirements may be overlooked
• Skewed results
• Lack of impartiality
• Missed opportunities/overlooked queues

The desire to do the right thing is often overshadowed by the need to do things quickly and easily.  This may be driven by corporate pressure, significant losses through thefts, budget constraints and other mitigating factors.  Consider that the costs of doing it incorrectly will always overshadow the costs of doing it right.

We live in a voyeuristic society…an age where news has gone from being informative to entertainment, and where society needs to see it to believe it.  Gone are the days when criminal activity operates in a cloak of secrecy; where cases can hinge on eyewitness testimony and be tainted by memory, time or prejudices.  Now, the experience is as equally important as the facts.

We now live in a digital age where virtually everyone carries a phone everywhere to call for help, a video camera to retell the story and become a voice recorder narrative.

Much of the media content shown during news events is publicly provided.  The public can be places that news crews cannot; in the epicenter, at the eye of the storm and the heart of the matter.  Amateur video footage has surfaced showing passengers in life jackets on the Costa Concordia being told to return to their rooms although history has now shown that the ship was sinking.  Indeed, much of the video shown in news clips – from natural disasters to crimes in progress – are derived from amateur video.  Take for instance footage of the 9/11 disaster or the tsunami in Japan.

When violence occurs, thefts take place, unwanted harassment or threats are uttered, this silent sentinel can provide the proof needed to bring the investigation to a successful resolution.  Take for example the recent G20 and Vancouver riots.  Amateur video combined with an inherent desire to do the right thing provided enough evidence to document what took place, who the culprits were and the extent of their involvement.  The evidence incriminated both the public rioters but also the police who were there to uphold social order.

There is even a new term in our urban slang, ‘digi-necker’, which succeeds the term rubbernecker and refers to a driver who slows down when passing an accident to take a picture of the scene with a digital camera.

Video technology also has formalized benefits.  Preventative solutions such as DriveCam, which has cameras installed in over 150,000 vehicles to monitor driver behaviour by watching both the driver’s actions and the road environment can help to protect companies against liability in accidents and provide corrective measures when driver’s are found to be at fault.  Taking this a step further, there has also been the suggestion that the public police itself by being able to call into a national reporting centre to report poor driving behaviour.  Based on the number of calls received regarding a particular licence plate, fines are levied accordingly.

Police in England have installed dozens of cameras on city streets to curb crime.  It is reported that the average person there is videotaped publically 2550 times per year.  Casinos now also have cameras with face recognition software to identify criminals before they have an opportunity to commit their crimes.  Police dash cams capture evidence both through video and audio recordings.

These factors combined with social media such as Facebook has reached a new brand of social consciousness, helping to bring criminal enterprises to their knees.  Gang members displaying photos of themselves with guns and drugs in their Facebook accounts, or posting videos of their crimes to YouTube have been brought to justice through the very evidence they posted online.

The bottom line is, no matter where you turn, no matter what you do, chances are there is a camera watching you or available to document your actions.  What does this mean in the workplace?  In a word: accountability.  There are both positive and negative considerations.  Firstly, you must always operate with the belief that everything you say can and is being recorded.  Through one-party consent law, it is perfectly legal to surreptitiously record someone without their knowledge as long as you are present and part of the conversation.  Secondly, by encouraging an honest workforce you are also recruiting a security force equipped to bring closure to a myriad of negative factors such as theft, harassment, workplace violence, fraud and corporate espionage.  Many workplaces have a no-phone policy which restricts bringing their phones onto the work floor however, in doing so, they may be shuttering one of their most powerful allies.

IMAC Online Training Academy is offering 50% off ‘Assessing and Responding to a Threat of Violence’ in the month of February.

By Brad Trew

Society has taught itself how to protect real property from threats; our cars, homes and families.  It’s become easy to name the long list of options to protect things: alarm systems, brighter lighting, police patrols, and bigger locks.

Ideas are not so easily protected because an idea stolen is not only difficult to detect but can be just as devastating when lost.  Such thefts of intellectual property are sometimes intentional, sometimes inadvertent.  In either case, it can impact your bottom line and your brand image, particularly if sub-standard products are being presented as your own.  Another common method is to piggyback on your company’s success with a similar sounding or looking product.

Ideas can take on many forms as well as the types of infractions that jeopardize them:

• copyright infringement
• trademark spoofing
• brand protection
• intellectual property
• research and development
• counterfeit clothing, handbags, etc.
• counterfeit movies and DVDs

The recent closure of MegaUpload.com has marked a pronounced change in the way the internet will operate in the future.  MegaUpload is considered to be the 13^th most visited website on the internet and was just one of the top three file sharing companies online making up 21 billion visits per year.  Much of the content on MegaUpload was deemed to be contraband music, movies and electronic books with an estimated $500 million being taken out of the pockets of the rightful owners.

Another area of rampant disregard for brand ownership is counterfeit clothing and DVDs.  The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that the international trade of counterfeit and pirated goods in 2007 amounted to around $250 billion.

Brand identity is your company’s ethics, ideas, services and personality.  Not only does it serve to identify your place in the market, it also represents a consumer’s emotions, confidence, values and prejudices about your company or product.

The types of investigative services fall under a wide variety of methods including covert surveillance to gather on-site evidence, pretense phone calls, in-depth online inquiries and computer forensic analysis.

To be certain that you aren’t inadvertently infringing on another’s idea, companies must do their own due diligence.  This due diligence can consist of searches of registered company names, patent searches or registration, trademark searches, design of logos to ensure they are not currently in use in some form, consumer focus groups and searches for the online presence of a particular product, service or design.

Every scenario is different so there isn’t a magic bullet approach in solving the ownership of an idea that can’t necessarily be held, felt, touched or heard.  Despite this, ownership is still a very real and tangible thing that must be proven and protected at all costs.

Some additional reading:

Megaupload Limited,^[1] better known for its closed websites including the top-15 file hosting service megaupload.com,^[1] is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a number of online services related to file storage and viewing. The domain names were seized and the sites shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on 19 January 2012, following their indictment and arrests of the owners for allegedly operating as an organization dedicated to copyright infringement.^[5] HK$330 million-worth assets were frozen by the Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong.^[6]

The shutdown led to denial-of-service attacks on a range of websites belonging to the U.S. government and copyright organisations.^[7][8] The case has not yet been heard at trial.  Read more…

Apple Sued for Trademark Infringement by VOIP Company iCloud Communications
By Klint Finley

Apple has had its share of trademark disputes in recent years, such as Cisco’s trademark of the iPhone trademark and Fujitsu’s ownership of “iPad.” Now iCloud Communications is suing Apple over the iCloud trademark, according to The Next Web.

iCloud Communications is based in Arizona and filed the suit in the U.S. District Court there. The company was founded in 2005 offers a variety of VOIP, SIP, PBX and conferencing services.

The suit, made available on Scribd by The Next Web’s Brad McCarty, includes a history of Apple’s trademark suits going back to the company’s beginnings, when it was sued by the Beatles’ record company Apple Corp. From the suit:

As was the case of the “iPhone” and “iAd” marks, Apple discreetly applied for a foreign trademark registration for ICLOUD months prior to the launch announcement on June 6, 2011 (Apple applied initially in Australia for iPhone, Canada for iAd and Jamaica for iCloud). That foreign ICLOUD application appears to now form the basis for the various iCloud applications for which Apple filed in the United States on June 1, 2011. Apparently, Apple is attempting to use a foreign jurisdiction’s laws to gain priority for its U.S. registrations while circumventing the notice and publication requirements for trademark applications filed here in the United States with respect to “intent-to-use” applications Read more…

Facebook fans of IMAC Online Training Academy will have a chance to win one of 10 $1,000 vouchers towards online courses.  To celebrate the newest HRCI approved courses, IMAC fans will have an opportunity to win the opportunity to take an entire suite of courses related to workplace violence, nonviolent confrontation management, safe terminations, crisis communications, guidelines for crossing picket lines, strike security and preparation, truck hijacking, armed robbery response…and many other courses for HR training and security training.

Click here to enter and view the contest details.

Why keep up with your continuing education?

Dr. Paula Caligiuri discusses Advancing Your Career Skills on CNN Newsroom. Dr. Caligiuri is a professor of Human Resource Management at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

HR professionals will receive accreditation towards their SHRM designation upon completion of any of IMAC’s pre-approved online courses

Ohio-based International Management Assistance Corporation (IMAC) has achieved HRCI approval for several of the courses offered at its IMAC Online Training Academy. Human resources professionals will now receive HRCI accreditation towards their Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) designation upon successful completion of any of these unique, professionally-relevant courses, available at http://www.imac-training.com.

The courses pre-approved by the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) have been designed expressly to further the careers of HR professionals, and include pragmatic subject matter developed by some of the industry’s top security professionals. Most popular of the accredited courses include an overview of workplace violence, nonviolent confrontation, high-risk terminations and work stoppage management.

Launched in early 2011, the IMAC Online Training Academy is unique in the practical and applicable nature of the training it provides. The IMAC security education team brings together respected experts who will instruct primarily on the realistic application of field-tested concepts and tactics to ensure students get relevant knowledge and techniques to equip them to succeed in the industry today. In addition to its more than twenty courses geared to HR professionals, the school also provides workplace violence training for security professionals and corporate executives.

“Our newly accredited courses for HR professionals are certain to provide a real career edge,” says Rob Shuster, vice president of protective services and training. “We are happy to have our very current and carefully-developed curriculum formally recognized by the HRCI, and look forward to imparting the latest industry knowledge, best practices, and training to as many eager learners as possible.”

In addition to the online courses, the HRCI has also pre-approved IMAC’s Labor Dispute and Work Stoppage Conference being held in Arizona from May 10 and 11, 2012. Registrants who attend both days will be awarded 7.5 HRCI credits towards their SHRM designation. For details and registration, please visit: http://www.imacservices.com/002/IMACArizona2012.php

In our recent blog, we discussed the value of social media as an investigative tool to surreptitiously gather data about an individual and his or her activities.  Facebook has recently demonstrated that it also has value as a crime-fighting tool.  In a recent article, Facebook has confirmed it will be releasing over three years of data regarding a cyber-hacking gang that has been targeting Facebook users.  As is commonly said, anything that is uploaded to the internet stays there forever.  This is just a clear example of how it can benefit us all.

Facebook to unmask, send message to Koobface Gang
By Don Reisinger

Koobface has been a thorn in the side of Web sites for years now. But starting today, Facebook is responding with salvos that could put the gang on the run.

According to The New York Times, the world’s largest social network will announce today that it’s planning to share boatloads of information it has gathered over the years about the Koobface Gang. The Times said today that Facebook believes “public namings” could go a long way toward stopping the gang from operating, and potentially help law enforcement officials start taking it down. Read more…

There is also an increase in the use of the Facebook by Police agencies to keep the public educated and informed of recent incidents.  More and more Police agencies are using Facebook to monitor the activities of criminals, their activities and their associates:

Police Use Facebook to Fight Crime, Talk to Residents
By Sara Inés Calderón

Police departments around the United States have begun to incorporate Facebook into their policing efforts, using the network to serve a variety of needs. Pages created to find missing persons have rendered useful information and tips on police pages or the pages of criminal elements have led to arrests.

As we previously reported, there are many ways for a municipal entity to help their constituencies on Facebook, such as posting events and providing useful information in an accessible way. A few police departments we spoke to said that they use Facebook to serve very specific needs online, and in doing so, are able to complement the work they’re doing in the real world.  Read more…

In the Beginning

The 1980s saw the introduction to the micro-computer and homes were beginning to slowly make them part of their daily lives for such mundane tasks as word processing, cataloging recipes and playing rudimentary games.  In the 1990’s, the internet arrived which opened a whole new world of information and possibility.

During this time, another social factor was at work: cocooning, driven by new technologies that allowed people to enjoy the comforts of life without stepping outside their home. This meant that people were retreating into their homes, socializing less and becoming more withdrawn.

A New Kind of Pen Pal

Facebook has now changed all that.  Now people can socialize from the comfort of their own homes, share their successes, failures, dreams and disappointments for the world to see.  Launched in February 2004, it now boosts over 800 million members (1 in every 13 people on earth) with a quarter million more joining each day.  Not only that, but 50% of these users log in every day, 60 million status updates are posted per day and 200 million photos are uploaded each month.  Interestingly, 57% of people talk to more people online than they do in real life.

Entertainment Weekly stated in their Best of the Decade List, “How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers’ birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?”  While their review may have been a light-hearted jab at the site, there is more than a little truth in their statement.

Social media sites like Facebook, Google+, MySpace and even LinkedIn for the business world, have become an encapsulated view of a person’s place in the world, divulging far more than a person would to a casual stranger.  This information is being used by jealous spouses, stalkers, employers pre-screening potential staff, police during investigations and private investigators.

Much More Than Meets the Naked Eye

While a casual search of these sites can usually achieve a cursory result of a person’s profile, having a skilled and intimate knowledge of how the sites work and capitalizing on loopholes in their infrastructure can reveal much more than the average user could ever hope to find.

A properly executed social networking search will examine various websites of information, databases and even a wide variety of Google searches, each configured to elicit a little more information.

Who Are You?

A properly executed social networking site can discover what a person looks like, their criminal history, known associates, employment, address history, marital status, general health and medical history, upcoming social events, travel plans or previous trips and so much more.

This level of detail and insight can be invaluable when conducting a wide variety of investigations such as insurance investigations (accident benefit or personal injury investigations), developing associations for crime-related and corporate investigations (thefts, frauds and workplace violence), locating missing persons, developing assets and so much more.

All you have to do is start looking.

In our daily lives we possess the instinct of self-preservation and survival.  We are inherently aware of our surroundings, lock our doors at night or when we leave the house and look over our shoulders for signs of danger.  We know to park our vehicles in brightly lit areas to protect ourselves and our possessions.  We choose where we live, work and play and with whom by considering our options and analyzing the benefits or detriment that each option offers.

A workplace is a microcosm of society as a whole with the same prevalence of thefts, drug use, violence, prejudices and motivations.

Corporate Loss Prevention is essentially applying these same protective strategies to the workplace to mitigate losses to your bottom line whether they be from employee theft, loss of time, customer confidence, safety concerns, etc…. they all cost you in the end.

Like the basic components of communication – the vowels a-e-i-o-u – the fundamentals of Loss Prevention can be broken down into a simple and clear plan of action.  A good and comprehensive program needs the following components to work simultaneously:

A: Awareness:   identifying your risks and communicating action plans to reduce those risks; education programs to provide a skill set to employees to allow them to take an active role in resolution; current trends, what to watch for and what employees can do about it; preventative measures; feedback to illustrate how employees’ actions are contributing to the problem and/or the solution; auditing to identify areas of weakness and achieve a minimum acceptable standard of compliance

E: Enforcement:  of all rules, physical security, policies, procedures and laws consistently

I: Investigation:  evidence that the company is responsive to issues and will address any malfeasance to the full extent of its abilities.  The end result is not only the removal of the root cause of the issue, but it also provides a road map to provide proactive measures in preventing a reoccurrence.  Just as importantly, a successfully executed investigation will provide a strong deterrent to others in the workplace.

O: Ownership:  empowerment; accountability; encourage a “do the right thing” approach while eliminating a “not my problem” mentality

U: Unity:   team cohesiveness; aligned objectives; working towards a common goal; shared vision; a desire to “weed out” bad apples

And most importantly…

You:  involvement; empowerment; the desire to do the right thing

AFI International was recently contacted by a long-time client as they had serious concerns about one of their employees and their work practices. As a result, AFI International consulted with their client and developed a sound investigative strategy which started with a due diligence background search in the name of the subject.

After discovering information regarding a criminal history by conducting open source database searches in the name of the subject we decided to investigate further. We conducted a forensic analysis of the employee’s work computer which determined that over 10,000 files had been shredded from the employee’s hard drive and the company’s server. We further identified that the company owner’s business partner had installed ‘sniffing’ software to monitor the company’s business activities which was a breach of trust. An IT technician in our client’s employ was found to be an accomplice to the employee and was instrumental in their attempt to cover their tracks.

As a result, both the employee and IT technician were terminated and we provided a referral to have the server system configured to prevent further compromise. As a result, the company has changed their internal policies to prevent similar occurrences in the future and of course to conduct pre-employment checks on employees prior to hiring.