Launch of
Global Security Week 2006

Wellington, New Zealand, February 6^th 2006: The week leading up to September 11^th every year is Global Security Week.  Over the next four years, Global Security Week starts on: September 4^th 2006; September 3^rd 2007; September 8^th 2008; and September 7^th 2009. 

The aim of Global Security Week is to provide information and impetus to help coordinate security awareness activities around the globe and, with Australian support, to align a range of commercial, public, national and transnational security awareness activities with the common theme of raising public awareness about security. The idea is simply to coordinate and encourage a wide variety of security-related awareness activities worldwide in that week, taking advantage of the obvious focus on security by the world's media.

Global Security Week is a public awareness initiative, not a commercial or political venture. We are not trying to obtain funding, de-rail other security awareness activities, nor focus on any particular aspect of security (such as terrorism, information security or physical security).  Global Security Week is deliberately designed to be a broadly-scoped event but with a long-term aim to become the main focus for security awareness activities in years to come.

Against a backdrop of global terrorism and organised crime, security in general (and information security in particular) has become a vitally-important sociological and business issue.  Commercial and governmental organisations are investing heavily in technical security controls but the security problems caused by people remain largely unaddressed.

Whilst responsible businesses and individuals employ a wide range of security measures, the global Internet community suffers as a result of those irresponsible businesses and home users who remain largely unaware of security.  Hackers and spammers frequently take control of insecure Internet-connected systems to use as platforms for their attacks. Raising the general level of security awareness is one way of addressing this issue.

By raising awareness, Global Security Week addresses security in the broad:

• All Internet users are part of a global community and mutually dependent on each other.  It is in everyone's interest to secure their own IT systems and be a good neighbour on the web.  We all face the threats of spam, malware, phishing,, hackers, intellectual property theft, cyber-terrorism, cyber-extortion and fraud.  We should all take responsibility to implement suitable information security measures to avoid being part of the problem.
• Recent terrorist atrocities graphically remind us of our shared reliance on physical as well as information security.  We must all remain alert for unattended packages, suspicious behaviour and so forth.
• Bombs and natural disasters (such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina) are relatively indiscriminate, impacting individuals and organisations that happen to be there at the time. Knowing what to do, if not actually being prepared for such situations can literally make the difference between life and death for people, and survival or bankruptcy for corporations.

Those interested in participating in Global Security Week are asked to register at globalsecurityweek.com. It is not for profit. Instead involvement is welcomed by organising security awareness activities during the week, and encouraging links to the global campaign using free promotional images.  We are gladly promoting activities on the GSW website free of charge.

In Perth, Amlec House Pty. Ltd., a security and risk consultant organisation, in association with Global Security Week, is intending to facilitate a one day conference and panel forum on September 8^th. The conference theme will address regional security issues for Western Australia and South East Asia, including maritime security, border security and emergency management. Keynote speakers will include Dr. Kumar Ramakrishna, a specialist on Jemaah Islamiah from Singapore, Dr. Alexey Muraviev an expert in intelligence and terrorism from Curtin University and Dr. Clifton Smith an internationally recognised expert in Security and Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University (and a Non Executive Director of Amlec House). 

Together we can make a difference. Support Global Security Week.

~ Ends ~