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AUCSO 2010 National Conference (Part Two): Project Argus and background checks

03 May 10

In the final instalment of a two-part AUCSO 2010 National Conference overview from the Cass Business School, Brian Sims pores over presentations on Project Argus and the importance of screening.

By Brian Sims

Following John Griffin to the stage at the Cass Business School’s Lecture Theatre was Paul Donlevey. Representing the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), Donlevey had joined us all to talk – in the main – about Project Argus and the latest counter-terrorism guidelines.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Argus concept, allow me to briefly explain. Project Argus is a NaCTSO initiative designed to assist businesses and members of the public in both preventing or handling and recovering from a terrorist attack. It achieves this by taking businesses through all the steps involved in a simulated terrorist attack.

That simulation provides attendees with a unique opportunity to learn from and contribute to valuable lessons that can ultimately help to protect individuals, businesses – either small chains or nationals – and communities.

The Argus briefings explore options: what’s likely to happen in the event of a terrorist attack, and what must your priorities be? In essence, Project Argus highlights the importance of being prepared and having the necessary plans in place to help safeguard staff, customers and company assets alike.

Donlevey commented: “Running alongside Project Argus, we’ve produced a series of counter-terrorism protective security advice booklets. Each of these guides consists of between 15 and 20 chapters, and eight-to-ten appendices. There are also a couple of checklists.”

Project Argus in the education sector

The point that Donlevey was keen to make is that “Argus is coming to the Higher and Further Education field”.

Higher and Further Education institutions are vital to the development of the UK. They’re not only centres for essential learning and research, but also encourage an understanding of diversity and culture within our society.

Many institutions harbour large student intakes from across the UK and overseas. For many of those students, going to university usually represents their first protracted period away from home, which can make them feel vulnerable and unprotected.

“With this in mind,” continued Donlevey, “NaCTSO has researched and produced a guidance booklet on Counter Terrorism Protective Security Advice for Higher and Further Education which aims to identify simple and effective security and safety solutions suitable for all institutions.”

The principles and procedures outlined in the booklet are based on recommendations derived from the experience of experts and aim to reduce the risk for students, staff and visitors through enhanced knowledge and learning.

“Planning and preparation for such events can often take months if not years to put in place,” continued Donlevey. “An early understanding of the security issues involved not only saves time but also reduces costs for university security teams who can incorporate identified measures before advanced plans are developed.”

Donlevey was adamant in pointing out that there’s no scheduled ‘one size fits all’ Argus training programme for practitioners. Rather, the process involves one-on-one discussions with interested parties to realise successful security implementations on a site-by-site basis. Speaking of which…

Specialist counter-terrorism security advice

As alluded to, each institution will inevitably require unique site-specific advice to complement this generic guidance. For further assistance, Donlevey recommends that AUCSO members contact their Counter-Terrorism Security Advisor (CTSA) through their local police service.

“CTSAs are able to conduct thorough site surveys and then offer proportional security advice,” stressed Donlevey, who has recently been involved with just such a project over a two-month period in advance of this year’s Ryder Cup golf tournament at Celtic Manor.

“Our instruction for university heads of security would include a one-to-two-hour ‘event’ on the counter-terror agenda,” enthused Donlevey. “This involves a multimedia-based simulation addressing a number of key points that educational institutions would need to consider should an incident arise. There’s a manual and a workbook, and a certificate of attendance is given out to all attendees at the end.”

Importantly, records of all who’ve attended an Argus instruction course are held on file by the Home Office.

Time for some revision

Donlevey also explained a little about Argus’ ‘cousin’, namely Project Revise. “The use of chemicals within industry and as ingredients in commercially available products is very widespread and extremely diverse. The dual use of some of these chemicals in the manufacture of home-made explosives is well documented, and there are numerous examples of attacks around the world perpetrated with the help of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) incorporating hazardous materials.”

One of the central recommendations in Lord West’s review of the UK Government’s CONTEST strategy is to highlight this potential misuse of hazardous materials to those who legitimately and routinely use them.

Not surprisingly, the academic community is specifically mentioned (the overriding intention being to raise its awareness about the potential threat these materials present to normal university life).

“NaCTSO was appointed to develop an awareness-raising product for delivery to the academic centres,” said Donlevey. “The product it devised is called Revise. The Revise event is a structured, multimedia package also facilitated by locally-based CTSAs at individual higher education institutions across the UK.”

Again, appointed CTSAs will work closely with their university colleagues to identify and encourage the implementation of policies, procedures and appropriate protective security measures to reduce the unauthorised accessibility to hazardous materials (and, in turn, reduce the overall threat).

Current Argus projects are broadly focused on the crowded places agenda, examining security for bars, pubs and clubs (in other words, the night-time economy), shopping centres, sports stadiums and arenas, cinemas and theatres, hotels and restaurants (in the case of the former building on lessons learned from The Dubai Incident), major events (including large screen displays in advance of London 2012) and commercial centres.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, there will now be a short interval…”

During the mid-afternoon interval that ran from 2.30 pm through to 3.15 pm, I managed to visit most of the exhibitors’ stands located on the Lower Ground Floor at the Cass Business School.

Having grabbed a coffee and a couple of bottles of water – the catering was first class, by the way – I found myself making a beeline for Bosch Security Systems’ stand.

There, I found the company’s business development manager Daniel Meyrick in fine conversational form. We chatted about developments in IP, IFSEC 2010 (at which the company doesn’t have a stand this year, although various representatives will be at the show to check out what the opposition’s doing) and the camera range on display at the AUCSO Conference.

The latter included models from the Dinion and Flexidome IP ranges, as well as DiBOS DVRs and the VIDOS all-in-one video management solution.

Midway through our chat, Daniel’s colleague and fellow business development manager Karl Haw greeted me with a hearty: “Hello, Brian. How are you doing?” I’ve known Karl for some time now. Since his days at Dedicated Micros, in fact, and it has always been a pleasure to listen to his considered opinions on ‘all matters surveillance’.

“Whereas an average secondary school will be open from Monday to Friday only, a university campus is a 24-hour hive of activity,” said Haw. “There’s a whole host of activities going on, with lectures, seminars, sports events and gigs happening throughout the week and at weekends. The sites can be vast, and there may well be thousands of people on site at any one time.”

As far as Haw’s concerned – and he’s absolutely right – this level of activity requires “a comprehensive, highly integrated security system”. A solution that can grow and be enhanced in line with changing requirements, then. “I would say that IP CCTV systems are ideal for locations like this where there are multiple buildings and multi-site campuses.”

Haw continued: “These systems can be integrated seamlessly with existing analogue products and networks, in turn increasing both the accessibility and efficiency of the legacy security system.”

It doesn’t take too big a stretch of the imagination to realise that such an integration process provides a cost-effective way of dramatically upgrading and improving current installations with no need to start from scratch. That’s the key message for end users in the educational sector (and elsewhere).

I also sneaked in a quick chat with Colin Holland, who had been instrumental in devising and then organising the social entertainment for the evening (which consisted of a boat trip up and down the Thames, sponsored by BLE).

Check, check… and check again!

The penultimate presentation of the day came courtesy of Patric Marshall, EMEA director at screening specialist World-Check. Given the risks involved, background checks on individuals are particularly important in the further and higher education sectors. Where do the prime risks lie, though?

“Students, visiting speakers, employees, funding partners, patrons… All of them are potential risks unless they’re properly screened,” said Marshall.

Before proceeding in earnest, Marshall quoted some statistics from a Social Affairs Unit report published in 2005. That report stated Government funding for universities was beginning to exhibit a downward spiral. Certainly, available money does seem to have diminished for the education sector, but that hasn’t stopped students from overseas wanting to study in the UK.

To emphasise the dangers presented to universities, Marshall cited the case of Johnus Khan. Khan was enrolled on a student visa at Liverpool John Moores University, but recently became one target of a police investigation into an alleged al-Qaeda terror cell which may have been plotting suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester over the last Easter weekend (the investigations are still ongoing).

Although here on a student visa, Khan was alleged to have been working (on a virtually full-time basis) as a security officer on building sites until he was challenged by officials from the UK Border Agency. He was said to be working well over the allotted number of hours legally permissible on a student visa.

Foreign students bring with them in the region of a £10 billion boost to the economy which – even more so in these fiscally difficult times – the Government is understandably keen to encourage, but at what price?

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the campaign group MigrationWatch UK, believes that student visas have long been “a gaping hole” in our border controls which the Government has simply chosen to ignore.

Nothing other than a ‘tick box’ process

“The present system for student visas has been referred to as a ‘tick box’ process,” explained Marshall, “and there are obvious risks here, particularly so as far as the less genuine colleges are concerned.”

Marshall then plotted the back story of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who, as you’ll all be aware, attempted to end the lives of 280 people on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 which was bound for Detroit, Michigan on Christmas Day last. Abdulmutallab remains in US custody.

From 2005-2008, the Lagos-born 23-year-old (who had attempted to detonate plastic explosives concealed in his underwear) studied engineering and business finance at none other than University College London, earning a degree in mechanical engineering for his efforts.

Prior to this period, in his high school years Abdulmutallab attended the British International School in Lomé (the capital of Togo). This is a private school that’s popular among wealthy Nigerians (Abdulmutallab is the youngest of the 16 children fathered by Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, one of the richest men in Africa). Abdulmutallab was known as a devout Muslim, and for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates.

Following his spell at City University, Abdulmuttalab attended a Masters of International Business degree programme at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.

In May last year, Abdulmutallab then attempted to return to Britain, ostensibly for a six-month ‘life coaching’ programme at what the British authorities concluded was a fictitious school. Accordingly, his visa application was denied by the UK Border Agency.

Abdulmutallab’s name was duly placed on a Home Office security watch list which, according to BBC News, meant that he couldn’t enter the UK, though passing through the country in transit was permissible. Thus, he wasn’t permanently banned. Abdulmutallab is known to defend the Taliban’s cause and actions.

“That 2005 Social Affairs Unit report made several recommendations,” recounted Marshall. “Among them, it said that universities would have to initiate proper and thorough screening programmes, and maintain accurate student records based on clear proof of ID.”

Five minutes and ten pounds

We live in a society and commercial system wherein it only takes five minutes and a mere £10 of your money to register and open a new company. The only question that will be asked is if the owners of said company have ever been disqualified as directors. Isn’t that ludicrously shallow from a security and fraud perspective?

Tellingly, when Bernadette Duncan stepped in and asked how many of the conference delegates are currently using specialists to provide their background screening solutions, only a smattering of hands went up.

The good news is that many more lifted their hands skyward when Duncan asked if they would now do so in the wake of Marshall’s presentation.

The final delivery of the day was meant to have been a session on the licensing of university security staff with input from the Security Industry Authority (SIA), but General Election purdah put paid to that.

In its place came an update on training courtesy of Jerry Woods (security manager at the University of Bristol, and leader of the AUCSO sub-group focused on training issues) and Tracy Phipps, head of security at the University of Warwick.

“AUCSO has now registered with Survey Monkey such that we can run training surveys for members,” explained Woods. “There’s also a desire to see some form of career progression passport introduced for university security officers, much along the lines of that orchestrated by Skills for Security for recording a given individual’s professional development.”

According to Woods, a Certificate of Achievement has been drawn up for officers, with 29 issued in the first month post-launch.

That’s some of the work that has been concluded in recent times, then, but what of work in progress?

Representation on key bodies

“On its website, AUCSO is now publicising various training courses run by other organisations,” said Woods, “but it disappoints me to tell you there has been little or no response to date. To move matters forward, we have suggested that AUCSO has some kind of representation on several key bodies involved with training such that we can raise our own profile in this area.”

In addition, Woods and others are working diligently alongside the National Open College Network on a new Level 3 qualification for university security staff. Keep checking back on SMT Online for further information.

The 2011 AUCSO National Conference and Exhibition takes place at the University of Bristol, and runs from 29-31 March