S
imon Riley, a governmental subject matter expert on threat replication, behavioural detection and situational awareness, shares his personal views on countering terrorism.
My approach to countering terrorism centres on tackling the basics first – removing the “low- hanging fruit”. This forces those acting with a terrorist mindset to work harder, take more risks and, ultimately, fail. For me, the most effective counter- terrorism measures sit in the deterrence space and always will.
These measures are proportionate to the real world and designed to deter the majority of terrorist activity, in all its forms – past, present and still to come. This approach has delivered significant successes and, importantly, it simplifies what should always be treated as a simple problem.
These ideas have evolved from my previous and current experience. I protect journalists that other states want to harm; I defend the physical and cyber environments of investment organisations targeted by Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) and their backers; I wrap personal safety procedures around politicians and government employees; I provide core protective security for public and private
buildings throughout the UK; and I operate across the political protest and direct action space. It is from this context that I can share the measures we should rely on when we counter terrorism.
First step: remove emotion
When contemplating a proactive and
protective response to terrorist threat, I believe emotion is our Achilles’ heel. Removing emotion from our response
should be the first measure we implement.
Without emotion, we can better identify the threat, the methodology and the potential outcomes. I will always double down on the impact of emotion because it so often leads to fear – and fear, in itself, is a win for terrorism and terrorists.
Four solid strands
Whether we are dealing with political protest, foreign influence, extremist individuals or organised groups, my recommended counter measures – the “game” – rest on four solid strands. These four strands are the low-hanging
The security solutions specialist
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