What is OFAC and Why Should I Care?

As a business, you are responsible for knowing who your customers are and whether or not they are on the OFAC list.  OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and it maintains a list of individuals and businesses that are sanctioned by the United States government.  Sanctions can include anything from economic restrictions to a full travel ban.  If you do business with someone or some entity or accept payment with a digital currency that is on the OFAC list, you could face heavy fines.  So it’s important to check your customers against the list regularly to avoid any run-ins with the law. (more…)

Dr. Peggy Whitson is a record-breaking astronaut who has spent more time in space than any other American. She was also the first woman to command the International Space Station and was one of the oldest active astronauts in NASA’s program. Peggy Whitson, a leader to other women in stem, is an amazing role model for young girls interested in science and space exploration, and her story will inspire many people around the world. (more…)

If your business manages a lot of visitors, it’s important to have a visitor management system in place. With so many different options on the market, how do you choose the right one for your needs?  Twenty years ago, choosing a Visitor Management System (VMS) was relatively easy because there weren’t too many to choose from.  Most VMSs were desktop systems.  They were not well suited for some of the more esoteric requirements, and they were especially not suited for a network-powered enterprise. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the process of choosing a visitor management system and highlight some of the key factors to consider.  Let’s get started!

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If you are a member of security leadership then this blog is especially for you.  If you are responsible for security, but you are not part of leadership then stay tuned because one of your challenges will be to get leadership on board.  We have dealt with some excellent people in leadership that really knew their job and take it seriously.  One such person was an Air Force Colonel.  He knew what he was doing.  He was born and raised in the UK, had been a member of Scotland Yard, and then for reasons I never heard, immigrated to the US, and became part of the US Air Force’s Security Forces.

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Visitor Management is a community effort

Visitor Management is a community thing!  Good Visitor Management takes a team with a common playbook to which everyone understands and agrees.  Team members work for different departments within the organization but all of them are part of the overall security team.  Each team member will have requirements that must be met for them to do their job effectively.  Since they are all part of the security team that has different but related requirements, I refer to them as “stakeholders.”

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“Goodbye Judy” – Neil Armstrong said to Judy Sullivan on July 16, 1969,

from the suit lab before the Apollo 11 launch.

Early Life and Education

Judy Sullivan is a true pioneer of women in STEM. Judy was born in 1943 to Robert and Mary Shanaberger.  As a young girl, Sullivan was always interested in science. After graduating as valedictorian of her high school in Alabama.¹³  She attended Jacksonville State College in Alabama where she majored in biology and minored in chemistry and math.  She was inspired by John F. Kennedy after she heard his speech encouraging more scholars to study engineering, science, and math. ^{See Footnote Below}  She graduated in 1964, the second in her class at college, and started her career as a high-school math and science teacher in Cocoa Beach Florida.¹  In the summer of 1966 she applied for a summer job at NASA.

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Visitor Management has advanced a great deal in the past 20 years.   For decades, except for the most secure locations, at best, visitors signed in on a clipboard and that was about it.  One of the military bases that we worked with a few decades ago went to lengths to make sure that everyone entering the facility, especially during times of meetings, had an up-to-date security clearance…unless you were part of the cleaning crew.  Then you were allowed in without question including at times when classified meetings were in progress.

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Have you heard this one: “WARNING – TO AVOID INJURY DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB?”  There are lots of workplace jokes including those about “lost time accidents” but workplace safety is no joke!

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Grace Murray Hopper working on the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University, 1946.

Who is Grace Hopper?

“Sometimes people think Hopper was ‘only’ a foundational computer scientist or ‘only’ a naval officer,’ but that was just the beginning,” said Julia Adams, head of Grace Hopper College and professor of sociology. “It’s important that people realize that she had four or five illustrious careers, each of which would have done her great honor: mathematician, foundational computer scientist, naval officer, teacher, and public intellectual.”²

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Trusted! But … Not Really

One of the most tragic attacks on the US military in recent history was the shooting at Ft. Hood.  It is tragic not only because of the loss of life but also the survivor’s guilt.  Like school shootings, it happened in a place of perceived safety.  In hindsight it is easy to spot the warning signs but why so often do these warning signs go overlooked?  Those trusted with protecting Ft. Hood, like so many other secure facilities, are faced with the awful guilt and reflection when determining if they could have or should have been able to prevent this.  Like the Navy Yard shooting a few years later, both attacks were carried out by trusted personnel.  While these incidents have been thoroughly investigated and additional measures have been put in place to prevent future incidents one fact remains true, the strongest fences won’t help when the enemy can walk in through the front gate.

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