THREAT REPORTS
Seismic activity: A danger to travelers
It is not hyperbole to state that not a day passes without some sort of seismic activity. One can, if curious, view a listing here and see that – as an example – on June 25, 2018, there were twenty seismic events worldwide. The frequency is such that there were, on average, nearly 1500 earthquakes a year over the last few years. While some areas – e.g., the significant parts of the interior of the United States such as the Great Lakes region – are relatively quiet from a seismic perspective other regions and countries throughout the world are extremely seismically active.
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US 2018 Crime Rates Expected to Drop
There has been much discussion in the United States about concerns around crime increasing. Indeed, unlike in previous election cycles, the 2016 general election featured one candidate – now President Trump – campaign on an anti-crime agenda that would have been more at home during the campaigns of Richard Nixon. Much of the concern is driven by the ability of 24-hour news cycles and social media to amplify coverage and to – through instant notifications to mobile devices – inundate individuals with content. Often this content that is pushed to consumers is the same or similar but simply from different sources syndicating from the same source(s). In the area of crime reporting this can, for many, create the impression that crime is out of control and that individuals are substantially less safe than they were years ago. This, however, is not true. Especially when compared to the late 1980s and 1990s the average American – especially those in large cities such New York and Los Angeles – are substantially safer now than they were during those periods.
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COMPANIES CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE
Thoughts of espionage often conjure up in one’s mind images of shadowy government agencies stealing documents, tapping phones, compromising individuals, or using the Internet to gain information about other nations – both foe and ally alike, and, while it is true that such activities do occur, occur often, and will continue to occur in the future, there are other forms of espionage that are also significant threats to the public. Corporate espionage is one such threat. Corporate espionage involves either other companies – foreign or domestic – or other countries illegally acquiring competitive information – such as trade secrets, customer lists, pricing lists, etc. – and subsequently using such information to gain an advantage over the victim in a given market. It should be noted that this is different from competitive intelligence which is a legal practice that involves using legitimate methods to acquire an understanding about a competitor so that one’s company is better equipped to succeed in a market; furthermore, although already mentioned, it is significant that corporate espionage is not simply an activity that companies engage in against one another. Rather, some nations – especially those with significant state-owned enterprises – have been credibly accused of engaging in corporate espionage against the foreign competitors of so-called national champions.
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