SecuranZ Symposium 2015 – An eye opener event organised for the Security Fraternity

The second edition of Securanz symposium that was hosted at Bank of India witnessed participation from over 120 security heads belonging to varied industry segments. The symposium kickstarted with an opening address by Shri R.N. Kar, GM, Bank of India and a powerful keynote by Maj Gen Soli N. Pavri on the present and future of security scenario in India.

The session on aligning with corporate goals delved into enrolling top management in designing efficient security plans whereby CSOs too can strategically assume leadership positions and make it to the high table. The issues of cost cutting and need for automation in order to work with limited resources and budgets was also discussed.

As pointed out by Shekhar Nalavade, Deutsche Bank, the challenge in change management and in proposing radical changes in the security plans is that sometimes management perceives it as ‘building a fortress out of the premises.’ Pushkar Gokhale, Godrej Security Solutions commented on quantifying the risks assessments, determining annual rate of occurrences, calculating single loss expectancies and concluded that it is pertinent to consider event the intangible quotient of reputation loss in the evaluations. Milan Tandan, Dena Bank narrated the four factors of managing risks, ensuring cost efficiency, improving existing security services and implementing innovations.

IRR 2015 (India Risk Review), the most authoritative guide on the geo-political, socio-economic, environmental, technological, security, safety and regulatory risks impacting businesses operating in India was launched at the symposium. P Sreedhar, HID Global made an eye-opening presentation on next-gen access controls through mobile solutions. Manoj Shenoy, President of FSAI, Mumbai introduced the activities of Mumbai Chapter.

The session on crisis management highlighted that it is more so process-focused and often neglects the human elements. The panel shared their experiences regarding tools and techniques that help in effective crisis management. Capt. L.K. Singh opined that organizations should decentralize the controls as the guards cannot wait for instructions and guidelines to come from center at time of crisis. Mutual support groups like ASAP in BKC founded by Col. Bhandari brings together security force of member organizations at the time of a crisis.

With CSOs being increasingly instrumental in making key decisions for technological investments in the security arena; it is today in his realms to drive business value out of the investments. Many organizations still make do with the obsoletes, without analyzing the cost effectiveness of the trending technologies. Session on ‘Redefining security by embracing newer technologies’ was chaired by Suresh Menon, FSAI. Taking a more conservative standpoint, Sanjeev Munj, Unilever Ltd spoke about why some of the technologies adopted globally cannot be blindly imbibed in the Indian corporates; by drawing several inferences from his experience in Unilever and also citing cultural differences. On the other hand, Arindam Mukherjee, Cisco stated that converging security systems on a common IP Platform is the way forward and described how the capabilities of Internet of Things can be explored in the physical security domain.

Som Gangopadhyay, Gunnebo India made a video presentation on evolution of new age security devices for cash and gold storage. He showcased lighter safes with in-built duress alarm systems and security airlocks that restrict the ingress of people. Vinay Mishra made a presentation on customized offerings that Hikvision can provide for every vertical.

Social engineering has been the most successful way of breaching physical security as it involves manipulating the minds of individuals and ‘mind’ cannot be predicted. Many a times the victim does not even realize that he has been scammed. The concluding session on ‘Social Engineer: The Unseen Enemy’ was moderated by Abhijit Rane, VFS Global. Col Satinder Bajwa, Reliance Industries Ltd shared some shocking statistics on the percentage of survey respondents who have been victims. Sanjeev Mishra shared insights from his experiences as a part of the red team for penetration testing and the need to remove fear of authority and uniform from the minds of the guards as perpetrators take advantage by intimidating the guards. Maj. Amit Mankar spoke about the preventive measures taken in Yes Bank.

The one day long deliberations unleashed: security as a business enabler, deploying technology for change management, crisis handling procedures and tackling social engineering and insider trading. It has been declared that the next edition of SecuranZ will take place in Jan 2016.