Security administrators are experts at creating and developing security plans to better protect and safeguard personnel or materials. Any time a single individual or group of individuals are in need of a security plan due to disruption or harm from the environment in which they work or live, security administrators must take proper steps in conjunction to creating a successful security plan.
Risk assessment is just one example that can be offered to security administrators when developing and creating a security plan for an individual or groups of individuals/organization. Administrators should first do a risk assessment of the individual, individuals or organizations, and the environment in which the individual is in or the organization is placed. For large organizations administrators must first understand the product or people and what potential threats they may encounter based of the environment they are in. Take for example the role of a security administrator in charge of developing a security plan for a new United States Embassy. The administrator must first know what they are going to be protecting (classified documents, equipment, American and non-American personnel, personal identifiable information). Once they understand the “what”, now they must understand the “why” it is important to be protected. Once “what’ and “why” are established administrators then need to understand the threats and risk that come externally from the country in which the embassy will be in. Natural, physical, and cyber threats all change drastically based off geographical environment and weather, diplomatic relations, the countries technological abilities, and the countries level of poverty. When administrators understand how these factors can affect overall security, they can then in hopes develop a solid security plan that mitigates potential threats. The same exact risk assessment strategy can also be used for a single individual. As an example, body guards for political figure, must use risk assessment to understand what types of threats the said individual might face due to political status and environment in which they are visiting. By understanding these things, the body guards can better develop a proper function security plan to keep there target safe and out of harms way if threat comes about.
References
Clifton L. Smith, & David J. Brooks. (2013). Security Science: The Theory and Practice of Security. Waltham: Butterworth-Heinemann.