Effective intelligence collection and exploitation is critical to assuming a proactive security posture. One of the key vulnerabilities for most private security organizations is their lack of information sources for predictive and proactive intelligence collection. This is certainly a reality for healthcare security teams who tend to operate in silos within silos. What is needed is more engagement within relevant geographical regions to share information that may pose a threat to others within our areas of concern. What is needed is a form of fusion center.
Fusion centers are intelligence collection and dissemination centers that bring together multiple local, state, and federal agencies to ensure everyone is cross-checking and tracking intelligence collectively and collaboratively. While I do not propose we build multi-organizational centers for information sharing, this concept can be applied within online spaces to help disseminate and cross-check information across multiple organizations within a localized region. For example, when a subject is identified who poses a threat to infant security within a hospital – a potential kidnapper – that information could be posted to the network to ensure all hospitals within that subject’s operational area are aware of the threat. Likewise, thefts that have a specific modus operandi (MO) can be posted to the network, and each agency can share information related to thefts that match that MO in their area of interest. That can allow for more information to be compiled and the criminal case can be more effectively built.
The lack of cross-organizational information sharing like this poses a risk to all our organizations. But the question must be posed: who has the resources to stand up a network like this? My answer would be our professional organizations. Groups like ASIS or IAHSS are uniquely positioned to create broad-reaching and highly relevant information-sharing networks for intelligence dissemination. Imagine an active resource like this that can aid both in the identification of threats as well as the interrogation of information. Access to this kind of tool can help push your organization’s protection to new levels of proactive success.
Do you have access to a formal information-sharing network like this? Do you see potential in this kind of intelligence sharing? What benefits can you identify for your organization? Join the conversation in the comments below, and don’t forget to like, follow and share to support the Proactive Security Blog.
