Introduction
UKGov intelligence agencies view the UK’s food and drinks supply chains as a viable delivery mechanism for terrorists to launch an orchestrated attack.
Industry
The UK’s food supply chain employs 3.6 million people. This substantial workforce can increase by up to 30% to meet retail demand during festive periods. The majority of vacancies are covered by temporary staff drafted in from external agencies.
Background and Right to work checks conducted on prospective employees access just 8% of available data about each individual. In the context of supply chain security, such checks are woefully inadequate for purpose.
Understanding
Premeditated contamination at any point in the supply chain could result in catastrophic consequences both socially and economically.
It was imperative that we understood the types of threat FMCG manufactures face, identify critical control points where an attack may occur then design, test, retest and subsequently embed countermeasures to create a formidable layer of security as part of an organisations defence strategy.
To achieve such a detailed degree of understanding, numerous live case studies were undertaken with the assistance of market leading FMCG food manufacturers to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude.
UKGov intelligence sources provided an unprecedented degree of understanding towards the types of threat faced by manufacturers and were instrumental in defining processes of operational strategy and data security.
Industry
There is evidence that threats to and within the food manufacturing process are moving faster than solutions provided under industry (TACCP and VACCP) guidelines.
Although the subject is correctly addressed in ‘The White Paper’ (noted in PAS 96 2014), industry guidelines fall short in their understanding of the magnitude of the threat and offer only basic remedies under the broad heading of ‘Know your people.’
STRATA does not seek to replace TACCP – indeed quite the opposite. It should form a fundamental part of an organisations TACCP compliance.
Current legislations that address the topic of operational security are not faulty by design, they are simply out dated and fail to address the true source of current threats – which is ‘people’.
Defined
Identifying threat from within.
It is not always external factors that can affect the economic status of an organisation – threat can quite easily come from within.
Without understanding the location, motive and capability of a terrorist cell it is difficult to predict how and where an attack may occur. But we can implement internal measures to prevent an attack by rigorously checking the personal credentials and social status of employees and agency staff with open access to the production line.
Unlike industry standard background checks that access just 8% of information about an individual, a basic STRATA background check accesses 78% of data.
This distinct gap in data analysis is leaving organisations widely exposed to risk in a sector already identified as being at significant risk of attack.
As well as confirming the true identity of an individual (exposing fake ID’s in the process), using advanced facial recognition technology, STRATA determines whether an individual has links to terrorism or, at the very least, draws attention to anyone following a persuasive ideology or radical agenda that raises cause for concern to intelligence services.
Process and
Embedding STRATA within organisations follows this tested and descriptive process.
* Security services will only act upon data returned as a ‘Red Flag’ and will discuss forward investigative requirements in confidence with the employer concerned.
** To understand the types of data returned and how security services may act upon data please contact us.
Credits and
During the course of developing this case study, a number of individuals played an instrumental role in shaping this incredibly powerful solution to an industry wide challenge. It is through such combined efforts that we are now actively liaising with government bodies and industry leaders to form measures that not only protect FMCG manufacturers from the imminent threat of terrorism, but also to set new, robust and up to date industry standards, policies, processes and legislations.
A much deserved thanks goes to Jeremy Praud of LI Europe, whose understanding of and contacts across the FMCG sector undoubtedly shaped the foundation upon which such a conclusive strategy could be formed.