Advice you can bank on

A Guide to Security Surveys
Bill Wyllie
Perpetuity Press Ltd
£19.95
Date published: 2000¶¶ Content: 50 pages¶¶ Details from: Tel: +44(0) 116 221 7778 Fax: +44(0) 116 221 7171¶¶

Frequently included within the security manager's job description is the required ability to conduct a security survey. The reasoning behind this is simple. In order to provide security you must know what you have to protect and how this can best be achieved.

In recognition of the importance of this subject, a new guide (part of a series being published by Perpetuity Press) has recently been released. The Author of this book, titled A Guide to Security Surveys, has very impressive credentials and he is someone likely to be familiar to the readership of SMT.

Bill Wyllie is both the Vice Chairman of the UK chapter of ASIS (The American Society for Industrial Security) and he is also the Chief Security Advisor to The Bank of England. Bill's appointment to The Bank of England occurred earlier this year and led to his position and profile being discussed within a feature article of SMT (June issue).

The guide is intended for anyone who has a responsibility for conducting security surveys and has little or perhaps no experience in this field. Security specialists who have security responsibilities, security managers on their first appointment and those who operate in small and medium sized business will find the guide of most use (though, given the standing of the author, I would suggest that even those with experience could find items of interest and value within the text).

At only fifty pages the guide is necessarily brief but this should not be viewed as wholly negative. Unlike some similar texts, the core issues contained in this guide are not hidden within pages of long-winded explanations.

Credence is given, within the guide, to the value and benefits an outside consultant can bring to a security survey project. However, it is also acknowledged that for reasons of frequency and, in small and medium sized businesses, for matters of finance this option may be precluded. In such situations an 'in-house' survey may be the only option, in which case those conducting the survey could gain confidence and some valuable expert advice from this guide.