Geopolitics Magazine January - February 2015 ( 7th Edition ) | Page 64

Geopolitics & Daily News Magazine
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SIGINT. Signal Intelligence is under
attack today. Most people due to this wave of
constant privacy violations by intelligence
services are not very happy on the thought that
surveillance will be on the rise again in order to
prevent events like Paris experienced. In truth
there is no easy solution here. Terrorists trick to
stay hidden is to mix with the crowd. Same
principal stands here. Mobile and internet
networks are a public service where all can
connect. So it would be very hard to locate a
person in that “digital crowd” if you are not able
to filter these digital communications. Even build
up profiles of users who are changing “avatar”
and mobile devices every now and then in
cyberworld.
The only failsafe that can exists in terms of privacy is one provided by Justice and penalties applied
when a certain line is crossed. But truth be told, there is no easy way to do this and in order to find the
needle in this case you need to go through the whole haystack.
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Training citizens on security awareness. This is not
something extreme. Citizens should be trained how to handle
crisis. Very good example was the calm temper that the
employee of the store presented in Paris. He kept calm, open
the freezer’s door and saved a lot of people. But not only that.
He remained calm enough to get intel on the attackers and
gave these to the police outside. He became a “citizen-officer”
and in that terms while he remained safe and kept others safe,
he played a significant role in terminating this crisis.
Citizens should also be trained in basic medical aid.
Giving CPR or be able to stop blood on a wound is not
something hard and has many applications in every day life.
Not to mention that helps on keeping calm in tensed situations.
This kind of training should be a part of school education.
As for dealing with armed combatants and trying to neutralize them, the answer is a simple
and very strict negative NO. Reasons for this are many but the main one is that dealing with armed
person is a job for police and armed forces who are doing this for a living and follow certain protocol in
order to save all. Even terrorists if possible. A mistaken action taken by a citizen who thinks has a
hand over his attacker does not mean that he/she will be successful and most possible that this will
lead to death of others in same area (in both Paris and Sydney there was an attempt to disarm the
attacker which lead to many deaths). No matter how trained someone thinks he is, there is no real way
to ensure that such an attempt might go the right way for all.
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Handle information flow to the media. Of course all media want is to get as much as
possible of what is going on. But this could easily backfire if attackers might see or listen something on
media that reveals a plan of authorities against them or even present a “hidden order/trigger” to
execute their final plan. For example the main goal of a terrorist is to get the most coverage he can on
his actions in order to accomplish his goal and terminate his actions in a blood bath (many cases in
hijacked planes or hostage attacks).

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