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Women In Security - Q4 Meeting

ASIS Columbus Chapter 27
Women In Security - Q4 Meeting

Heather Miller and Women in Security hosted their Quarterly meeting at the Discover Offices in Whitehall. The meeting was attended by ten women and three men who work in Corporate Security for several organizations. They were joined via Zoom by the speaker who was Dr. Stephanie Leite with the Forensic Intelligence Corporation. Dr. Leite's topic was THREAT ASSESSMENT, which is her specialty. In addition Dr. Leite is a Forensic Psychologist. 

Corporate Threat's are low frequency but high impact. They can damage the moral, finances, resources, structure, confidence and reputation of both organizations and families that are attacked. Coincidentally Brian Thompson of United HealthCare was shot today, so it will be interesting to see if further investigation determines that he might have faced threats and if these damages might impact his organization. The media is stating this was a planned attack and Dr. Leite stated that most attacks of this type are pre-planned. Although schools receive high intensity news media attention when there are threats and shootings at educational institutions, by far businesses are the greater targets of shootings. 

Threats might come from irate employees, family members or customers. Workplace violence such as the shooting of a spouse in a place of business is a common extension of domestic violence. It was asked by an audience member if businesses track and accumulate threats called in to businesses by irate customers - to see if more than one call taker is receiving threats from a single perpetrator - and the answer was YES. The presentation was very informative and generated discussion among the attendees. Dr. Leite was open to offering further assistance to the group and suggested  a number of resources for more information including documents by the FBI or DHS and a book entitled "Trigger" by Mark Follman.

The Discover facility and staff were very accommodating and refreshments were served. Today's meeting was an excellent opportunity for networking. All are looking forward to the next WIS meeting and social hour.