Ocon Reed & Associates: We are a Colorado safety and investigation firm specializing in Protective Intelligence. Our services detect and prevent the threats you know about and those you don't. Have you received complaints about impropriety at work? Does a former spouse, employee, or colleague seem to have the information they shouldn't have been able to access? Are you considering partnering with
an organization or contributing large sums? Before you stay awake at night with questions, contact us! Human manipulation has a long history that still takes part in our daily lives, trying to influence your decisions, defraud you for monetary gain or cause physical harm. The saying: If I’m not doing anything wrong, I don’t care what information is available about me or who is watching me is a fallacy. When leveraged, information is potential power, and it is ever so easily exploitable. Protective Intelligence (PI) is one specialty under the broad umbrella of “Security,”; commonly thought of as a subsection of executive protection or counterintelligence. Protective Intelligence is taking measures to prevent, detect, and counter the actions of intelligence gathering via physical, cyber, or technical means. The implementation of Protective Intelligence is to create a protocol or method of identifying, assessing, and mitigating possible threats. PI could be for personal use, relationships, business dealings, corporations, and executives. The threat to a person starts with information. Learning about someone is the key to attacking them. Thus, information is considered critical protected Intelligence. If a bad actor were to obtain it, they could cause harm or loss to the individual, family or corporation. Two of the primary methods used to obtain critical information are Surveillance and Social Engineering. Surveillance is the act of watching, monitoring, and documenting. Before an attack, there is a planning stage; thus, surveillance is part of planning. Social Engineering is human manipulation to gain access to otherwise critical or protected information. We live in a world of digital interaction. Passwords, photos, signatures, and social security numbers are stored and shared worldwide. We are quickly moving into a merged world of digital and biometrical, DNA, hand & eye scanners, voice recognizers, facial recognition, microchipping, invisible GPS fencing, etc. The future is always upon us; thus, technology will always be tomorrow’s next best thing on the verge of obsolescence. Technology-based solutions to security and safety will always face the reality that some people exploit everything—innovative technology, keyless, wi-fi, Bluetooth, 5G, etc. There is no entirely safe technology. However, technology is a double-edged sword for an attacker; whatever could be used against you can also be exploited against the threat. Drones, satellites, cameras, and microphones in our hands all day are making the reach of the surveillance ominous. A disgruntled employee used to be thought of as only a physical risk, i.e., returning to the workplace with violence. But it’s just as likely for an individual to deliberately target an organization by introducing Technical Devices or Malicious Software. The connection between work and personal life tends to be social media. A post about work, vacation, purchases, or personal life details can be used by an attacker. All the security at work can be thwarted by posting something recklessly or foolishly online. The flip side of technology-based protection is non-technological solutions such as physical barriers, anti-surveillance, and situational awareness. A threat does not just refer to the physical harm of a potential attack but also threats of financial loss, privacy breaches, stolen intellectual property, and criminal investments. Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) are an area's physical and electronic examination to discover electronic eavesdropping devices (audio/video/GPS/analog/digital/Bluetooth), security hazards, or weaknesses. TSCM is a countermeasure to prevent surveillance. TSCM uses radio waves; most devices transmit information, data, video, or voice through the air or wires. The standard countermeasure is “to sweep” for them with a receiver, looking for the radio emissions. Professional sweeping devices are costly and require knowledge of RF theory to operate the equipment effectively. Devices that do not emit radio waves are also very difficult to detect. Very sensitive equipment is used to look for magnetic fields or the electrical noise emitted by the technology; however, technology alone isn’t enough; these items will be discovered through a physical search.
