Facilities Security Archive

Burns Engineering’s Security Practice Leader Rene Rieder Jr. Sat Down with Us to Talk About Facilities Security, the Importance of Communication and How to Balance Form with Function in Ways that Enhance Security CURTIS MARQUARDT: Please tell our readers about yourself and your experience working in security.  RENE RIEDER JR: My name is Rene Rieder Jr. and I am the Security Practice Leader for Burns Engineering. I have  nearly three decades of security design and engineering experience involving planning, development, design, project management, construction, installation and commissioning of electronic and physical security solutions. My experience includes vulnerability assessment, security master planning and design of access control an…

Utility and critical infrastructure protection will have a prominent role at ISC East in November. With its location in New York City and a regional reach from Boston to Washington, D.C., ISC East—the smaller brother of the nation’s largest security trade show, ISC West—this year will be putting extra emphasis on critical infrastructure and the technology that is utilized to protect it. Multiple conference sessions will examine the topic, with analyses of the threats that cyberattacks, drones, domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and additional factors pose to the nation’s power, water, gas and other essential facilities. On November 21, the second day of ISC East, the Security Industry Association (SIA), the show’s premier sponsor, will hos…

The theft of copper from unmanned substations threatens public safety and the reliability of the supply of electricity. The best way to fight this is with a strategy that involves utilities, the community, vendors and other electricity sector asset owners/operators. A campaign of this scope needs executive attention and support. It is too important to leave to the security department. The strategy that we employ in security in our sector is a simple one that has three components: We harden our assets. We train our people. We shift from a reactive to a proactive approach. Hardening Our Assets There are several aspects to hardening our assets. First, we need an effective physical protection system that is capable of detecting activity at t…

The Greek historian and general Thucydides stated, “Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.” This statement is as true today as it was 2,500 years ago. For utility security professionals, this maxim speaks to the nonchalant attitude toward substation and infrastructure security that many of us have or face from within our organization. But hope is not a defense. We face serious threats that require serious responses. Regardless of location, size or organizational makeup, the threats we face are growing in intensity and sophistication. Some of these evolving threats can be traced to shifts in population and migration trends, which have introduced an array of new dangers and hazards into our service areas. Many…

For many utilities, physical security begins at the door or the parking lot. However, robust facility protection starts at the perimeter. But we often abandon this defense resource to aesthetics, budget restraints, or misplaced values. This makes a secure perimeter the least considered and most often overlooked element of facility security. However, resilient perimeter protection should be your first line of defense, and establishing and maintaining rigid perimeter security should not be discounted or ignored. A robust perimeter security system should be an element of a comprehensive asset protection security plan. Developing a solid security plan always begins with a thorough understanding of the threats being faced, the facility’s curren…

  With attacks on utilities growing every year, it is more important that ever to have a sound bomb threat response program in place. A key element to that program is to work together with state and local law enforcement to establish lines of communication about potential threats as well as establishing an effective response plan. Utility Security magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Curtis Marquardt Jr., had a chance to sit down with the Office of Bomb Prevention’s Operation’s Chief, Charles Leas, to talk about how utilities can create or improve their bomb threat program.  Curtis Marquardt Jr.: At the time of this interview, it’s National Police Week. So, it’s great that Utility Security magazine gets to talk about the value of utilities par…

How many substation security or protection articles have you started reading, assuming the subject was one thing, only to discover it was something else? The problem stems from the fact that there are multiple definitions for substation security and protection: one digital/data, one electrical and another physical. When utility professionals hear “substation protection,” many immediately think about electrical protection. Circuit breakers, fuses and switchgear come to mind; some visualize coordination study time & current graphs. But as crucial as electrical protection is, it’s only one aspect of protection. Since engineers, operations and maintenance staff and security specialists share substation responsibilities, we’ll have a smooth…

Utility Security Magazine: Tell our readers more about how you got into active shooter response training and what made you passionate about it. Jake Edwards: It really started for me right after 9/11. After that attack happened, I joined the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq. I was in the Second Battle of Fallujah, which was a massive and deadly battle and one of the largest urban combat battles in recent U.S. military history. When I was in that battle, facing gunfire, it helped me understand what was needed to survive that sort of conflict. I had to trust and work with new people under pretty extreme conditions. After I was honorably discharged from the military in 2009, I felt a passion to share the insights I learned from my milit…