Stanford Law School, Friday June 25, 2010

11:30am Track A: Cyber Security and Cloud Computing

• New security issues surrounding cloud computing
• Making sense of the patchwork of state, federal and international laws
• The Obama Administration's cyber security initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 6, 2010 - San Jose, California - Erroll Southers, TAL Global's Managing Director of Counter-Terrorism and Infrastructure Protection will receive the Earl Warren Outstanding Public Service Award. This award is presented to a civic leader who has made an outstanding, sustained contribution to good government in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area.

Southers joins past recipients that include former President Ronald Regan, former governor of the State of California Edmund G. Brown, former mayor of the City of Los Angeles Tom Bradley, and Eli Broad (an American philanthropist and founder of KB Home & SunAmerica) among others.

"I am humbled just knowing I will join such an esteemed group of previous Earl Warren Award recipients and I am thankful to the association and the University for selecting me as the recipient of the award for 2010", Southers said. "I will continue my work of focusing on interdisciplinary solutions to the challenges facing our national security".

Southers is also the Associate Director of the National Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California (USC). He was a Presidential nominee for Assistant Secretary of the TSA, served as the Chief of Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department (the nation's largest dedicated Airport law enforcement division) and was Governor Schwarzenegger's Deputy Director in the California Office of Homeland Security. Southers also worked in the FBI where he was assigned to the terrorism and foreign counterintelligence squad, and was a member of SWAT. He also served in the Santa Monica (CA) Police Department and was on the faculty of the Rio Hondo Police Academy.

The award is being presented by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at the California State University Dominguez Hills, located at 1000 East Victoria Street in Carson, CA. The ceremony will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the Loker Student Union.

• Erroll Southers,
  speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference
  Topic: Getting Smarter in the Fight Against Terrorism
  Date: 04/27/2010
  Location: Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA
• Erroll Southers,
  interview on NPR Patt Morrison Program
  Topic: Smarter Fight Against Terrorism
  Date: 04/28/2010
  Location: NPR / KPCC / Patt Morrison Program Beverly Hills, CA
• Larry Dietz,
  speaking at the International Association of Managed Service Provider
  Topic: The State of Information Security for Managed Services Provider
  Date: 04/29/2010
  Location: Webinar
• Erroll Southers,
  delivering the Keynote address at the Whittier College Chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha Annual Induction Ceremony Dinner
  Date: 04/29/2010
  Location: Whittier, CA
• Peter Franklin,
  speaking at the Business Recovery Managers Association (BRMA) conference
  Topic: Cross Sector Liaison - Mitigating Shortfalls in Public/Private Sector Disaster Planning Relationships
  Date: 04/29/2010
  Location: Novato, CA

TAL Global announced today that Erroll G. Southers has joined its executive team as Managing Director of its new Counter-Terrorism and Infrastructure Protection Division.

"Erroll adds an unmatched government, academic and industry background to our executive team" said Johnathan Tal, CEO of TAL Global. "He has a special gift for understanding complex strategic and tactical challenges while creating inventive and cost-effective solutions for them," Tal added.

Prior to joining TAL Global, Southers was a Presidential nominee for Assistant Secretary of the TSA. He served as the Chief of Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, the nation's largest dedicated Airport law enforcement division, and was Governor Schwarzenegger's Deputy Director in the California Office of Homeland Security. Southers worked in the FBI where he dealt with terrorism and foreign counterintelligence matters, and was a member of SWAT as well. He also served in the Santa Monica (CA) Police Department and was on the faculty of the Rio Hondo Police Academy.

Southers' homeland security and public safety career spans three decades including executive positions in educational, homeland security and public safety organizations, and at every level of government. He has demonstrated a unique academic and operational methodology designed to combat terrorism, and possesses a keen sensitivity to cross-sector (private/public) liaison.

Southers is the Associate Director of the National Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California (USC). At CREATE, he developed the Executive Program in Counter-Terrorism and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Homeland Security and Public Policy.

Southers earned his BA degree at Brown University and MPA at USC, where he is recognized as a counter-terrorism expert. He is a Senior Fellow of the UCLA School of Public Affairs and has lectured widely in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Hong Kong and China, where he was invited to assess the security for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"We are all delighted about the addition of Erroll to our team" said Tal. "He is an exceptional individual and his expertise and vision are essential when dealing with the increasing complexity of global threats."

"It was a difficult decision to leave the significant work we were doing at LAX," said Southers, "however TAL Global offers me the ability to continue working with a wide range of private sector and government clients towards the goal of managing risk by applying interdisciplinary and holistic solutions. I am excited to join the TAL Global team."

April 2, 2009 - San Jose, California- TAL Global announced today that it has reopened its office in London in order to serve the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The TAL Global operation will be led by its Regional Director of EMEA, Nigel Brown. Brown contracted with TAL Global between 1998 and 2001 and served as regional manager for Cisco Systems' locations in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and Brussels. The reopening of this office now enables TAL Global to provide the EMEA region with its myriad of services ranging from security management, emergency preparedness and health and safety, to executive protection details and due diligence background investigations for executive candidates. TAL Global's services are fortified by their worldwide network of contacts and experts.

"When we decided to reopen our EMEA regional office, it was a distinct pleasure to find out that Nigel became available to support our clients with the same dedication and excellence we have learned to expect from him back in 2001. I am delighted to partner with Nigel and his team in London and throughout the region," said Johnathan Tal, President and CEO of TAL Global.

Brown has more than 28 years of experience in corporate security, protection, investigations, and law enforcement, most recently as Senior Managing Director of GARDAWORLD's Consulting and Investigation unit in Europe. Previous to his position with GARDAWORLD, Brown was co-founder and CEO of GSS Global, a leading European risk consulting firm. There he specialized in internal controls and compliance, banking safeguards, security systems engineering, executive protection and threat monitoring, white collar crime, due diligence, employee screening, and IT investigations.

"I have been associated with TAL Global for over a decade and it is an honor to support their initiative to re-engaging in EMEA. The professionalism of the TAL Global team is outstanding and will be greatly welcomed in Europe and beyond," commented Brown.

A TAL Global case study is featured in the latest publication from The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), entitled "Computer Fraud Casebook, The Bytes that Bite", edited by Joseph T. Wells.  The following is an excerpt from "What Lies Inside the Trojan Horse":

"...In the late '90s, Silicon Valley was the mecca for tech start-ups. A host of "techies" with bright business ideas were enjoying the height of the dotcom boom.  Flying in the face of convention, these budding companies embraced a more casual culture than the large, established, staunch corporations before them. Located in San Francisco's Bay Area, Incurio Inc. was a company in the midst of rapid growth. They employed a host of tech experts, largely brought in from overseas, that provided online and on-site tech support for various computer systems, peripherals, and applications; it was a Geek Squad before its time. Even with the steadily growing trend of telecommuting, the masterminds behind so many of these groups knew that, to be successful, their personnel would be spending a great amount of time at the office.  Casual became not only the dress code for most days, but the general attitude of all levels of staff.  But in the quest for a more comfortable atmosphere, did some of thes organizations like Incurio also relax their control protocols?..."

The full chapter is available as a PDF document at the bottom of this article.

To purchase the book, visit Wiley Publishing.

Two executives from TAL Global- Johnathan Tal, President and CEO and Larry Dietz, Managing Director, Information Security & Legal Support Services- have been scheduled to speak at RSA Conference 2009, to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from April 20-24.

Tal and Dietz will host a Friday morning session entitled "Data Video Security Convergence: a Case Study". During this session, they will share lessons learned during a pioneering investigation that combined covert video and data forensics. This investigation, which played out over the course of several months, required the use of covert cameras to establish the fact that a suspect was indeed using a particular workstation. Video footage obtained by these cameras was used in order to match the suspect's physical presence with the data and network activity on the workstations in question. Legal issues including employee expectations of privacy will be talked about, as well as the imperative balance between discretion and the judicious involvement of select client IT personnel that needed to be handled at all times during the investigation . "One of the most challenging aspects of the investigation was clarifying the roles of technical, legal and management personnel," said Dietz. Client trade-offs of cost versus scope of investigation will be detailed and lessons learned concerning how to strike that balance will be provided.

According to Tal, "When conducting an investigation today, the logical data and physical evidence have to both be managed effectively."

The RSA Conference is the security industry's most comprehensive event featuring an extensive list of experts speaking on a broad spectrum of topics. The conference brings together professionals from a wide array of industries, including banking, finance, government, healthcare, pharmaceutical, computer software development and manufacturing. For more information on RSA 2009, or to register for the conference, visit the RSA Conference 2009 website.

We provide Emergency Preparedness, Assessment and Training services and have a full spectrum of services designed for K-12 and higher education institutions. 

Mark Weimerskirch, TAL Global's School Safety and Emergency Preparedness expert, was recently interviewed by Security Management, the monthly publication of ASIS International, regarding his Emergency Preparedness work with one Bay Area school district.

"District Offers Security Lessons", by Laura Spadanuta (published as the cover story in the August 2008 edition of Security Management Magazine) deals with the process an East Bay school district went through in assessing security programs in use at the time, and what it is doing now in conjunction with TAL Global to put best practices in place. Through TAL Global's guidance and training, this school district is developing not only effective Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management plans, but self-sufficiency in the ability to conduct its own future trainings.

For the full article, visit Security Management Online.

Lucien Canton's book, "Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs", propounds an all-hazards, multidisciplinary approach to emergency management.

It discusses the emergency manager's role, details how to establish an effective, integrated program, and explores the components, including: assessing risk; developing strategies; planning concepts; planning techniques and methods; coordinating response; and managing crisis. Complete with case studies, this is an excellent reference for professionals involved with emergency preparedness and response.

Find it at Wiley Publishing.