The Fox lies in wait!

The Security excellence awards – organised by Security Management Today (SMT) and Security Installer – are now into their eighth year of honouring the very best security companies, installers, consultants and clients in the business.

One of the scheme’s categories – that of Best Guarding Company – has occasionally suffered criticism (admittedly not from the winners) that it relies perhaps too much on the pen of the applicant company and not enough on measured operational performance.

To assuage the dissenters, The Security Watchdog has agreed to carry out Silver Fox Audits on a selection of assignments run by each of this year’s finalists – Lynx Security, MITIE Security, Northern Security, Securitas Security Services, VSG and Wilson James.

In practice, each Audit Team will attempt to gain unauthorised access at various sites, and the findings of each ‘penetration test’ will then contribute towards the ultimate decision of the Judging Panel in declaring the winner.

What is a Silver Fox Audit?

The Silver Fox Audit has three distinct stages (‘Keeping the Fox at bay’, SMT, February 2006, pp30-32). The first stage is the attempt by an Auditor to gain unauthorised access to a given premises. The Auditor will only use non-Gung Ho methods to do so (such as the production of clearly false identification documents, tailgating an employee into the premises or posing as a contractor in a bid to bluff their way past Security Control).

The second stage involves carrying out a physical check on all of the Security Industry Authority licences held by members of the security staff on duty at the time. Do those who don’t possess such a licence carry a Licence Dispensation Notice? Is the full security team on site as per the requirement?

Last, the third stage involves the examination of a couple of items taken from a ‘menu’ of on-site operational disciplines. Almost certainly we will concentrate on the number of management visits to the assignment during the past six weeks, look at what those visits achieved and consider actions taken following incident reports. It is also likely that we would create an emergency situation and assess how well the operatives react to it.

When will the Audit occur?

The value of the Silver Fox Audit is that it is independent, and can occur at any time. It could be undertaken during normal office hours or under cover of darkness. It could be on a weekend or a Bank Holiday. Even the Auditors do not know when they will be sent to site until just before the event.

At The Security Watchdog, we feel strongly that it is important to create – as far as practicably possible – similar conditions for each guarding contractor such that we can be seen to be completely fair to all parties.

The Silver Fox: a track record

The Silver Fox Audit Team has already carried out a significant number of audits for both end users of guarding services and their contractors. Indeed, we work for some of the biggest names on ‘both sides of the fence’, and have thus far enjoyed no little success in gaining unauthorised entry to their premises.

However, the real satisfaction to be derived from this process is to see how the individuals and teams involved have improved in a very short time post-inspection. While last month we may have been able to gain access with comparative ease, it is always a different story four weeks on! In short, we are providing real-time, on-site training so that, in the unlikely event of a genuine invasion of client property, the duty security team will take the correct courses of action as an automatic procedure.

Rewarding security successes

If an individual member of the security team has the courage of their convictions and actively prevents unauthorised entry then The Security Watchdog rewards them with the Silver Fox Tie-Pin. Assuming that the on-site security team is successful in preventing unauthorised access on a minimum of nine out of 12 occasions, then they’ll be presented with the Silver Fox Award Certificate.

Each time an officer goes on duty for a one or two-hour stint, they have to be extra vigilant or they will let down their colleagues. If the team as a whole fails to stop the Auditors on the requisite number of occasions then, ignoring extraneous circumstances, they may well feel that they have let down both the client and, indeed, their employer.

Our Auditors want to be caught! It means that the duty security officer is doing his or her job to the highest standards possible and that security is taken seriously by all concerned.

Security Excellence Awards 2006

Each of the finalists in this year’s Best Guarding Company category has put forward a choice of five assignments from which the Judging Panel has selected one – at random – to be the subject of a Silver Fox Audit.

Under normal circumstances, the Audit is automatically failed if unauthorised access is gained. However, on this occasion we do not offer a Pass or Fail solution. Rather, we are writing up our findings on each stage of the Audits and will leave it to the judgement of the Panel members to decide on the overall winner based on the set Security Excellence Awards criteria in addition to the Audit results.

Is it embarrassing to fail?

It is far better to fail The Security Watchdog Silver Fox Audit but then succeed if a real security breach is attempted! We have not yet experienced a case where an organisation using this method of testing has not significantly improved their performance.

SMT: The November Edition

With the permission of those contractors shortlisted, we will report on how the Silver Fox Audit Team fared against their teams.

We expect to succeed in gaining access on at least half of the submitted assignments, but would express in advance our respect that they have agreed to take on the Fox!