Before we talk about how we at MIB look at security, let us first talk about the myths that exist about security. It’s a term that is more misunderstood than understood.
First myth is that security has many levels – national security taken care of by the Armed Forces, internal security looked after by the para military forces, societal security by the police forces, cyber security by the cyber experts, private security by the private security professionals and so on and so forth. The fact remains that security has no levels. Security entails addressing the same kind of threats at all levels. It entails the same sequential steps – avoidance, reaction and resolution. That’s what the Indian Army does at the borders and that’s what private security professionals do for events and individuals. While the resources may vary, the approach is universal. Think about it!
The next myth is security is handling the security breach. Have people and surveillance and address the security breach when it happens. Period! That in fact is the failure of security. Security, in fact, is avoiding a potential security breach and in case of avoidance failure, react swiftly and effectively to deny the culprit the upper hand. Allowing the breach to happen and reacting to it, without exception, puts the security arrangements at a disadvantage. While one may stop the culprit but rarely can the damage be avoided. The paradigm is as much applicable at the national level as it is at an event or individual level.
The third myth is that anyone can provide security. The closest parallel I can think of is anyone with a stethoscope can treat. While people trust only qualified doctors because it’s a matter of life and death, they trust anyone dressed up in a security uniform with their security. Security too is a matter of life and death and cannot be assigned to the novices. Unfortunately, that’s the prevailing perception. And the outcome of this perception is very visible. People think that the paan chewing person with grey or brown uniform is providing them the security they need. Do they? The empirical evidence speaks otherwise. Pick up the newspapers – it is largely a catalogue of security breaches for the day with sprinklings of other news in between. Time to smell the coffee. Avoid your turn is all that I can say.
The fourth myth is that the security threat is not a serious threat and resources allocated to it are sunk costs. And then there is another set of people/ organisations who feel that the security threat is a serious threat but the target is someone else, not them. Anyone who faced a security breach thought the same before it happened to him. And the outcome of that thought was that he became a target and paid a price – out of proportion with the savings that he had done by avoiding professional security. The fact remains that its only a matter of time before your turn comes, if your guard is off!
There are many more myths but these are the primary ones.
And it’s not only about the clients, even the security agencies architecture their security believing in the same myths.
Pick up the unemployed from the trains arriving from Bihar or Chhattisgarh, give them uniform and a certificate which can be easily and cheaply bought, pay them peanuts and deploy them. Bingo! The security is in place. Is it? If it was so simple then why are the countries spending billions for their security. Think about it!
Time to talk about us – The Men in Black, the MIB – essentially, we are Men out of Olive Greens.
We created this outfit with decades of combat experience and a conviction that it is possible to avoid most of the security breaches and any one attempting it can be given a bloody nose.
We had a simple approach based on our wisdom of hind sight – avoid a security breach as far as possible and if the breach happens act swiftly and decisively to mitigate the damage. The sequence of action remains the same – avoidance, reaction, resolution.
With this conviction we created the organisation, invested time, energy and money in an environment that was non conducive. Sticking to our convictions was not difficult for us because we come from an organisation which has never failed the country – the Indian Army.
I will share the resources and capabilities we possess soon.
For now, I request you to do what you did when we donned another uniform and that is trust us.
We know our job and we are good at it. Better than anyone in the arena.