Security is here, there and everywhere, from the Stone Age to the 20th century modern time, security has been a significant and essential feature in safeguarding a state, organisation, or person’s safety. General threats can become risks to individual and can even extend to produce issues with impact at international and national strategic level.
The term ‘security’ originates for the Latin se-curus, from cura meaning ‘to care’. It can be considered in two contexts, either freedom from danger, or a show of force (or strength), able to respond to or deter threats. It is usually the latter that is most obvious to us in terms of visible presence. This latter model is congruent with a traditional military model maintaining a particular social ordering from internal and external adverse influence, through the use of ‘force’. Security aims to protect systems, organisations and society from those with an intention to commit harm. The ‘intention to harm’ may be provided by terrorists with political, nationalist or extreme religious belief, or by organised criminal gangs who simply want to profit from an illegal activity. A popular although narrow perception of security is thus portrayed by uniformed staff found protecting shopping centres, banks, offices and entertainment venues. In this context, security is form of private policing for commerce.
Security is a rapidly expanding and essential feature of corporate security. There is virtually no organisation, public or private, without a team dedicated to managing security issues.
Therefore the security management profession in general have a particular role to play in limiting the effects of threats upon the organisation they are there to manage and protect.