Success in Washington!!

Finishing a very exciting week in Washington where BeST was used as the main platform to carry out a major Crisis Management War-Game for one of the largest corporations in the USA.download

The Game is considered a great success with BeST receiving rave reviews as to its ability to present encompassing graphic representations to the decision making process and the ability to provide immediate points to the de-briefing process ( or Hotwash as our American friends call it).

For those of you attending Passenger Terminal Expo in Amsterdam in March. we will be there talking about a recent case study with IATA.

Looking forward to hearing from you!!

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Being Prepared – Computerized War-Gaming to Mitigate Cyber Risks

We are proud to announce that BeST is partnering with Mr. Pascal Buchner, IATA Chief ptx2017_20th_colour_datesInformation Officer, to present our latest case study involving the Scenario Platform (Powered by Best) at the Passenger Terminal Expo.

The objective of this joint IATA-BeST presentation is to introduce a case study in which, through using a computerized war-gaming platform, IATA was able to analyze its crisis management processes. The case study will introduce how use of cutting-edge platforms enables an effective and efficient process while maximizing results, enabling the organization to quickly achieve its learning objectives.

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Welcome Maccabiah Games 2017!!

BeST is proud to announce that it has been chosen to provide a series of War-Gaminghttp://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-big-city-big-ideas-business-conceptual-businessman-watching-image32765967 activities as part of the preparations for the 2017 MACCABIAH games – Because Practice Makes Perfect! see more at www.be-strategic.solutions

Be Prepared!!

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Happy Holidays from all of us here at Lotan Group

A little something from us to you for the holidays
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Preparing for Active Shooter scenarios, Cyber Attacks and Natural Disasters

It’s been a busy month at BeST headquarters, with 4 war-Games and Tabletop exercises taking place.

More than 110 participants in 4 events dealt with a variety of dilemmas ranging fromdownload (1)active shooter scenarios, Crisis management for a large corporation following a cyber-attack and national disaster management following a natural disaster.

Quite a few lessons were learned from these games as can be seen in the following bullets:

  1. Dealing with the formal media outlets and social media while managing a crisis
  2. Information sharing during the crisis
  3. Situational analysis and understanding the threats

Many comments were repeated during the de-briefings and hot wash; mainly that the use of

an analytical tool to graphically reflect the decision making process presented a fresh and new way to enhance the organizations operational preparedness for their next crisis, while the turnaround time for preparation and summary report was short providing an additional benefit in ROI.

For more details on using BeST for your next War-game or Tabletop exercise; please contact us at creator@be-strategic.solutions

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Test yourself – Are you really prepared to manage the next crisis?

In a time where terror attacks have become a frequent occurrence, we see that much is discussed on the ability of first responders to respond as quickly, effectively and efficiently as possible. The active shooter incident in Orlando earlier this month, the attack agaactiveshooter5inst a policeman and his family in Paris and finally the horrific attack in Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on the 28th of June are an example of these and a preview of what awaits us in the near future.

In this modern era we find ourselves in conflict between adding more layers of security and the fact that we have to also continue operations and keep the civil liberties which are the cornerstone of our existence.

While looking at many of my associates in the security consulting world, we see many recommendations on adding layers of security, from intelligence to physical hardening of infrastructure and adding layers of cognitive and behavior detection to existing deployments. To my surprise after 2 days of going through posts and newspaper articles I see little discussion on preparation for crisis management and disaster recovery.

Finishing a series of war-gaming and Table-Top exercises in the United States and Europe in the last three weeks on a range of different subjects, from active shooters and up to cyber-attacks against an airline we see that the ability to run through scenarios in a controlled environment enables the organization to fully examine its thought process on how to deal with rising issues. Procedures are evaluated and lessons learned, while enabling the participants to “feel” the event, so that when they encounter it in real life, it won’t be the first time they deal with the specific crisis.

One of the recurring elements we have seen in many of these War-Games and Table-Top exercises are the lack of clarity and information at the beginning of the event. This becomes critical in such events as every second counts and when the flow of information between entities is not smooth they cannot develop a real analysis of events which in real life will cost us human lives.

So, when planning your security deployment start with defining your threats, develop your http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-big-city-big-ideas-business-conceptual-businessman-watching-image32765967concept and security layers, processes and procedures. Acquire the correct technologies to deal with your threats, recruit and train the correct people and text them and the chosen technology. Don’t forget to test yourselves as managers who may one day be in charge of managing such a crisis and who will be responsible for recovery and continuity.

In short – test yourself!!

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Every Minute Counts…

“The hack at Hollywood Presbyterian forced doctors to use pen and paper in an age of computerization. News reports said its fax lines were jammed because normal e-mail communication was unavailable, and some emergency patients had to be diverted to other hospitals. Investigators said administrators were so alarmed that they may have paid ransom first and called police later”   http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-hospital-cyberattack-idUSKCN0VS05M

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In an age, where we rightfully spend huge amounts of resources in preventing attacks, organizations seldom examine their ability to deal with the consequences once the attack has taken place.

But the truth is that business continuity shouldn’t rely only on our ability to prevent the malicious intent from happening, but should also be based on the first few minutes or even hours of how our personnel will react to the threat.

As upper management plan for these events, they should ask themselves a few questions:

  1. Did we invest in reaction and not only prevention?
  2. Are our people prepared for these threats?
  3. Are we as upper management prepared? Do we know how we are going to react?

Unfortunately, in many cases the answer is no.

I agree with all those that are raising an eyebrow as they read this post saying that prevention is crucial and we should be investing in that domain, but let’s put it as it is. You are not going to prevent all the threats from happening, so you better start working on your contingency planning and understanding of how your organization is preparing for these…

You should start by:

  1. seeing your contingency plans are in place
  2. auditing
  3. testing all those involved
  4. practicing together
  5. war-gaming

I believe in all of these as preparation to events, because through them, you canlearn how your organization is prepared for predefined events, you canlearn how your organization “thinks” during crisis which in turn effects your decision making process and in many cases shows you how your organization deals with the unexpected.

So, I suggest that the next time you sit down with people from your organization, examine their reactions to different events and maybe even prepare a war-gaming program, because when the threat materializes, every minute counts towards saving lives, infrastructure and eventually money.

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Happy Chinese New Year of The Monkey

Presentation1

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War Gaming Simulation together with GIMI

Lotan Group is proud to announce the completion of another Strategic Decision Making Simulation using our computerized “BeST” system (Be-Strategic.solutions).Simulating For Perfection

The simulation was held by the Galilee International management institute in the North of Israel as part of the annual courses in national Security and Mass Crisis Management.

The simulation dealing with the management of a National Disaster Crisis included 30 students from the National Security and Crisis and Mass Disaster Management courses been held at the time.

The full day simulation was considered a great success by all participants  as can be seen in the following testimonials

  • “Excellent learning experience because it taught us how to make a decision in uncertain situation in stressful time”
  • ” the war gaming was replicating real pressure on individual and understanding that during emergence there are a lot of agencies involves and stakeholder need to interact with each other”
  • ” Brilliant way of understanding the reality of managing a conflict through a war gaming”
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War Gaming Simulation in Europe

We are proud to say that we have concluded another Strategic Gaming simulation in Europe. The war-gaming simulation using our computerized platform BeST (see the movie) was considered a great success with participants from the Aviation and Banking sector dealing Simulating For Perfectionwith several dilemmas in the Cyber domain.

BeST – (http://be-strategic.solutions) presents a unique opportunity for organizations to enhance their decision making processes and evaluate preparedness.  Participants in the gaming process operate in a virtual surrounding, which simulates future challenges. The game reflects prevailing operational procedures designed to confront critical strategic dilemmas. The participating players represent competitors, suppliers, rivals, experts, government authorities, media outfits etc. The unique interactive nature of the strategic gaming simulation creates a dynamic learning experience, accessible from multiple locations, providing a cost effective and modular solution

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