#protective intelligence

 (NOTE: This is an abbreviated excerpt from "Travel Intelligence Hacks." Download the full article & 24 page PDF here)

 I have a challenge for junior analysts and novice students of travel intelligence. Experts need not apply.

If you produce your own report (following the guidelines in this PDF) based on real locations, for a specific time period, for a specific high-net-worth traveler, and email it to me…

Provided that it is up to our (your and my) standards, I will mail you a physical certificate for completing my challenge AND I’ll enter you into a drawing to attend my in-person, 2-day Travel Intelligence Hacks training FOR FREE.

Requirements

Must follow a logical structure and the general guidelines from this PDF

>1200 words

>15 sources cited

When you email me the final report, please list the two biggest challenges you faced in completing it

Example

As an example, you could write me a travel intelligence report for the CEO of Goldman Sachs, flying from his home town to the Goldman Sachs’ Shanghai office. You can practice your OSINT research skills as part of this. Or you can write a travel intelligence report for President Trump on his upcoming international trip.

The sky’s the limit, use your imagination.

Only 1/2 of 1% of the readers reading this will complete this challenge.

Do you have what it takes to be one of them?

Submit your report here: [email protected]

You didn't read "Travel Intelligence Hacks" yet? Download it below!

 Best of luck!

 (NOTE: This is an abbreviated excerpt from "Travel Intelligence Hacks." Download the full article & 24 page PDF here)

Travel intelligence means many different things to many different people. I am going to outline how I prefer to structure and curate my travel intelligence reports. What to include, what is assumed, what’s irrelevant, and so on.

The structure of my travel intelligence reports share similarities with reports of iJet, OSAC, and the US State Department. (USE WHAT WORKS!) I also abide by the principles from “Intelligence Writing Secrets for the Uninitiated.”

Travel Intelligence VS Travel Research

The focus of our travel intelligence report is safety and security of the principal (and their assets). Their assets include physical property (vehicles, planes, etc.) and intellectual property (confidential business information, trade secrets, etc.). We are also being conscious of potential threats to the principal’s image (embarrassment), potential inconveniences during travel, and more.

All information outside of safety, security, and immediate factors impacting the principal will be referred to simply as “travel research,” and this will go in a separate report for the executive protection team. Travel research should be completed well in advance of the trip because of visa and immunization requirements. Plus, if the situation at the destination is so dangerous that you need to insist on the principal avoiding this location, then it’s best to do this in advance.

The travel research should include information about the following: entry requirements, immunization requirements, background (culture, currency rates, etc.), and any preliminary security concerns. Don’t forget to research what items are contraband such as firearms, tasers, handcuffs, sat phones, etc.

Technically it’s all intelligence, but we need to agree on terms for the sake of communication.

Collection Phase (CHECK), Now What?

We started our intelligence collection phase with this in mind: “we need to address the issue of the client’s safety & security.”

Logically following that issue is the question: “What are the greatest threats to the principal during the trip (and how can they be avoided or mitigated)?”

Threat ? Risk ? (Insert Synonym) ?

As an equation, Threat = Risk X Impact (source: Executive Protection: Rising to the Challenge by R. L. Oatman)

“Risk” is better understood as likelihood, while “Impact” is simply the potential effect of the threat if it materializes.

Threats: The Big Four

In Advance, by David L. Johnson, he lists the following as primary threats: assassination, kidnapping, injury, and embarrassment. However, this list could easily be expanded to include street crime, medical emergency, and more. iJET even gives individual numerical rating-values to crime, security services, civil unrest, terrorism, and kidnapping.

Potentially, we could assign our own values to any or all of these factors, once we’ve concluded our research. We could even take into account the value designations from OSAC (crime, safety, terrorism), iJet, the US State Department, and the home country government, which may have a terror or crime designation for its cities.

These threats could easily be assigned values based on risk, impact, vulnerabilities, and security measures (mitigation).

It’s Time to Produce the Report

The report should begin with an overview or summary of your conclusions. In this summary, you need to state what the greatest threats to the principal are–preferably two or three which you discovered during your collection phase.

These threats or concerns can range from negligible to significant, and they have to be supported by evidence. For a trip to Luxembourg, maybe your primary concern is a looming strike by airport workers. But for your trip to Mexico your primary concern might be kidnapping.

After outlining our primary threats regarding the principal’s proposed travel, we will give detailed evidence to support those concerns. Further, we will give an informed recommendation for mitigating the threats.

Side note: this is up to the discretion of the policy maker/reader of the final report. They may want security recommendations from the analyst, to get an informed perspective different from their own. But if the analyst has a limited security background, then maybe the reader doesn’t want their recommendations. Their call!

After our summary, the body of the report will include detailed information supporting the conclusions we stated in our summary.

Some of this supporting information would include the following:

Travel alerts & warnings from the US State Department, OSAC, iJET, or others

Crime, safety, and/or terror ratings by US State Department, OSAC, iJET, and home country government

CDC travel health notices

Recent trends in crime: nation-state & local–especially those involving high profile victims

Recent social unrest & current trends

Past terrorist attacks in the area (with emphasis on historically symbolic dates [For more information read “Mark These Dates (It Could Save Your Life)”]

Almost Done!

We will end our report with an Appendix.

Here we can include any other supporting documentation that did not quite belong in the report. This might include a map of intended stops with areas of concern annotated, a weather forecast, relevant diagrams/statistics, and our favorite–emergency contacts!

Every book ever written about executive protection or travel safety has stated that you need to know where these are: embassies, consulates, hospitals, police stations, and more (such as secondary airport).

And… You’re Done

But you’re not really done because the situation is dynamic, conditions will change, and the principal’s itinerary will change. So continually monitor the situation, and make revisions as necessary, keeping everyone informed.

Want to read my 6-Page sample intelligence report? Download the full PDF below.

 Thank you for reading, and I hope you download the full "Travel Intelligence Hacks" PDF. You won't be disappointed!

Happy Hacking!

 (NOTE: This is an abbreviated excerpt from "Travel Intelligence Hacks." Download the full article & 24 page PDF here)

 The Travel Intelligence Mind Map is a framework for the analyst. It gives them a systematic process to tackle the ambiguous task of producing travel intelligence.

I have broken down the mind map into three sections: General, Macro-Level, and Micro-Level.

General encompasses the most basic information about the location, such as entry requirements, immunizations, infrastructure, and crime & safety.

The Macro-Level includes that information that you would learn from the US State Department, OSAC, iJET, Stratfor, and the home country’s government. This phase of the process begins to reveal the larger concerns that a security team will have to navigate: social unrest, terror threats, crime against US citizens, industrial espionage, and more.

Our process concludes with the Mirco-Level. During this phase, the analyst drills down on what all the research means to their specific mission, such as...

They corroborate the information from the Macro-Level sources by reading local and international reports.

They identify every destination on the principal’s itinerary that may be subject to increased risk.

They know where civil unrest usually occurs and when scheduled strikes/protests will occur.

They explore how changing weather conditions could impact the client’s travel. (We’re not just worried about the principal being assassinated & kidnapped. If it’s typhoon season, or wildfire season, then these are pertinent details!)

This is not an exhaustive list. It’s just a guide. But it’s a damn good one, and I encourage you to create your own–one that’s specific to your operation.

On to the diagram…

   Thank you for reading, and I hope you download the full PDF. You won't be disappointed!

(NOTE: This is an abbreviated excerpt from "Travel Intelligence Hacks." Download the full article & 24 page document here)

 Suppose you only had 10 minutes to initiate your travel intelligence research, and and then you had to provide an initial report to your principal / executive protection manager. Where would you start?

There are six sources that we will take advantage of in our hasty research project.

Google News

Travel.State.Gov

OSAC

Stratfor

Twitter

[Bonus]

Before we begin, if you have access to iJET World Cue (or similar services), then take advantage of those services, but still use the remaining sources to corroborate and give context to the iJET reports. iJET is far from perfect, and it should not be treated as a one-stop-shop for travel intelligence.

#1 Google News

I recommend a quick keyword search of your location of interest on Google News because it will aggregate recent news relating to your keyword, and it will be from (generally speaking) credible sources. Sources will often include: BBC, NPR, WSJ, Etc. This step will alert you to any breaking news or significant events relating to your interests before you dive-deep into your research.

#2 Travel.State.Gov

The US State Department is the closest thing to a one- stop-shop for the travel intelligence researcher. First, they provide a list of travel alerts and travel warnings for specific destinations.

Second, they provide a detailed, concise report with the following: passport/visa information, safety & security, embassies/consulates, destination description, local laws, health information, and more. Plus, you will find relevant links here for the State Department “Fact Sheet” for that particular country and more.

“Travel Warnings” vs “Travel Alerts”

A travel warning indicates that you might want to reconsider your travel, while a travel alert indicates a short-term event that might impact your travel.

“We issue a Travel Warning when we want you to consider very carefully whether you should go to a country at all. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Warning might include unstable government, civil war, on- going intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks. “ - US State Department

“We issue a Travel Alert for short-term events we think you should know about when planning travel to a country. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Alert might include an election season that is bound to have many strikes... [or] a health alert like an outbreak of H1N1...” - US State Department

#3 OSAC

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) provides the researcher with crime & safety reports, daily news, and more, for a wide range of international travel destinations. Most of the content here is free to anyone, however, some of the resources are view-able only by members (referred to as “constituents”). Becoming a constituent is fairly easy, provided that you have an LLC or similar business structure.

#4 Stratfor

Stratfor provides analysis and commentary on all things geopolitical. There is only one draw back. Most of the articles require that you either be a member (yearly fee), or that you provide your email address, so that you can view individual articles.

Side note: I do have one criticism of Strafor. There have been many instances when I’ve researched how large geopolitical events would impact trips to international destinations. And at the conclusion of my research, after reading five or more Stator articles about a particular issue, I learned nothing signifiant. In these instances, I could have got the same information (or better) from Reuters. On occasion, Stratfor may only provide you with academic-hot-air that has little substance or consequence for your research purposes.

#5 Twitter

Twitter is a necessity because it will give us a general idea about what information is currently trending regarding our target destination. In addition, you will find pictures and videos from locals that give you insight into the situation there. It is also a good practice to search the names of your airports, hotels, etc., as you may come across strikes, recent crimes, and other activity missed by the previous sources.

Don’t forget to take advantage of Twitter’s advanced search features, allowing you to search tweets by the geographic area that they were tweeted in.

[BONUS] Trends Map

Trends Map is a simple site that will display geographically, which hashtags and key words are the most popular in a given geographical area. For example, if you were attempting to predict anti-Trump protests in Illinois, the day after the US Presidential Election, this tool would make it simple. You could examine which geographic areas have the highest concentration of “#nevertrump” hashtags, as one example. Hashtags and keywords provide insight into the public sentiment of a given geographic area.

10-Minute Travel Intelligence will not fulfill all of your travel intelligence needs in 10 minutes. Rather, it is a proven framework for the analyst to conduct their initial assessment of a particular domestic or international travel destination.

 Thank you for reading, and I hope you download the full PDF. You won't be disappointed!

Support your security mission by applying a historical context when you calculate threats to your assets.

You have no excuse not to. You know that attack anniversaries carry increased danger. Follow the below instructions to import the dates into your calendar.

How to Import the Calendar

Step 1: Download .ICS Calendar File - CLICK HERE

Step 2: Import file into your calendar

For (Apple) iCAL follow these instructions: Note: The import process is faster and easier if you do it on your mac. Once it's on your mac, iCloud will update the calendar on your iPhone! (1) Create a new calendar for the events; example: “EP Attk Cal” (2) Choose File > Import. (3) Select the EP Nexus .ICS File, then click Import. (4) Choose the calendar to add the events to, “EP Attk Cal” Done.

For Outlook follow these instructions: (1) Click on the File > Open > Import. (2) Highlight "Import an iCalendar (.ics)" and click Next. (3) Choose EP Nexus .ICS File which you saved to your desktop, then Click on OK. (4) Once the file is chosen, the data will import to “Open as New” or “Import.” *When the “Open as New” option is chosen, the file will open as a separate Calendar in addition your Personal Exchange Calendar. Click the “Import” option to add the data to your Personal Exchange calendar. Done.

For Gmail follow these instructions: (1) Open Google Calendar on a computer. Note: You can only import from a computer, not a phone or tablet. (2) In the top right, click Settings > Settings. (3) Open the Calendars tab. (4) Click Import calendar between the "My calendars" and "Other Calendars" sections. (5) Click Choose File and select the EP Nexus .ICS File (6) Choose which calendar to add the imported events to. By default, events will be imported into your primary calendar. (7) Click Import. Done.

 Thank you for reading! Travis

PS: If you found this useful, then you should read my full series about protective intelligence – Click Here