PROJECT UPDATES

What we’ve been doing, where we’ve been travelling, and what’s next.

Marrakech Crisis Simulation

This month, I was fortunate to have been invited to run a crisis simulation exercise in Marrakech for a global client. The exercise was based on the general elections in South Africa. The format involved two different teams being exercised simultaneously, which was challenging but doable. The debriefing session after the exercise provided a great opportunity to reinforce the key learnings from the exercise.

Crisis Exercise Kits

A reminder that we've recently updated our Crisis Exercise Kits.

These kits save you the time and effort of having to design your own desktop crisis exercises. They distil 24 years of crisis response and crisis exercise experience into a simple-to-use package designed to save you time, effort and money.

We have the following kits available:

• Terrorist attack
• Civil unrest
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Missing traveller

Each Crisis Exercise Kit comes with a presentation deck that includes an exercise briefing, six exercise serials, and notes on debriefing the team. Alongside each exercise deck we provide a comprehensive set of facilitator notes. This document provides detailed guidance for the facilitator, broken down by serial. We also provide an exercise preparation guide and a team self-evaluation form. In short, everything you need to run a professional exercise.

The Crisis Exercise Kits are available for US $250 each or as a set of five for US $975.

If you're interested in a turnkey solution for desktop crisis exercises, you'll find our Crisis Exercise Kits to be a cost effective and high-quality solution that will save you days of effort.

TRAINING

Training workshops and customised training solutions.

Crisis Response Fundamentals

Crisis Response Fundamentals is designed to teach crisis team members the basics of managing a crisis effectively.

In this workshop, participants learn how to:

• Implement a crisis management process
• Collect and analyse information during a crisis
• Prioritise and delegate tasks during a crisis
• Allocate and manage resources during a crisis
• Engage and communicate with stakeholders during a crisis

Throughout the workshop, participants will explore real-life case studies and will be able to apply their newly acquired skills in a hands-on exercise.

The workshop is valuable for incident and crisis management teams for organisations of all sizes.

If your organisation would be interested in participating in the Crisis Response Fundamentals workshop, please reach out.

APPLICATIONS

Updates on our applications.

Whistler

Whistler is a simple and secure whistleblowing application that enables organisations to receive and manage confidential reports from whistleblowers. Whistler was first launched in 2015, and we're recently updated the application to version 2.0. We increased the level of encryption and added case management tools.

Pricing starts at $19 a month for small teams.

If you're looking for a simple and secure whistleblowing solution for your company, you can learn more here.

Incident Manager Application

Incident Manager is now feature complete.

I've spent this month focused on testing, security, and performance.

The final step is payments integration.

This is the first application that's focused on supporting teams and enabling team performance during an incident. It's game changing for incident and crisis management teams.

Please reach out if you'd like a demo.

Tenacio

Tenacio is a project management application that tells you what to do next. It does this based on deadlines, your activity preferences, and when you prefer to work on certain activities.

The application is now feature complete and I'm focused on fine tuning the algorithms and improving performance.

STATION XV

Updates on our in-house gear, sharing a behind-the-scenes look at our design and manufacturing processes.

Following the launch of the Street Series in April, I'm delighted to announce the availability of two new accessories: the Travel Folio and Camera Module.

Both are now available for sale at the Station XV website.

If you're interested, I've written a short article on Medium about the launch of Station XV. You can check it out here.

PUBLICATIONS

We’ve published a number of books on crisis management, travel security and security evacuations.

The Crisis Simulation Handbook

The Crisis Simulation Handbook is a comprehensive guide to designing and delivering world-class crisis simulation exercise. This book compiles 24 years of experience, starting from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 to now.

From a reader: "Just read your book, The Crisis Simulation Handbook. It’s excellent, full of practical advice and by far, the best publication I’ve seen on this topic. Thanks for writing and publishing it."

Learn more and download a sample here.

Bulk Orders

Several highly regarded organisations (and one prestigious university) have purchased copies of our books for their teams. If your team would benefit from the knowledge and experience contained in our books, please reach out. We can provide discounts for bulk orders.

READING LIST

Links to interesting articles worth your time.

The Dangerous Rise of GPS Attacks. Thousands of planes and ships are facing GPS jamming and spoofing. Experts warn these attacks could potentially impact critical infrastructure, communication networks, and more (Wired). Read here.

Report: China’s propaganda units harvest data from overseas tech firms. Beijing’s propaganda engine is pulling data from Chinese tech firms, including popular shopping and gaming apps with hundreds of millions of U.S. users, researchers say (Washington Post). Read here.

Extremist Militias Are Coordinating in More Than 100 Facebook Groups. After lying low for years in the aftermath of January 6, exclusive reporting shows, militia extremist groups and profiles have been quietly reorganizing and ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook (Wired). Read here.

Truth and reality with Chinese characteristics. The building blocks of the propaganda system enabling CCP information campaigns (ASPI). Read here.

What Is Wagner Doing in Africa?. Russian mercenaries are wringing wealth and political leverage out of the Sahel (The Atlantic). Read here.

The New Propaganda War. Autocrats in China, Russia, and elsewhere are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world (The Atlantic). Read here.

Russian disruption in Europe points to patterns of future aggression. The case of Britons allegedly working for Russian intelligence is just one example of how Moscow is actively disrupting normal life in Europe and the Baltic region (Chatham House). Read here.

Adaptive link dynamics drive online hate networks and their mainstream influence. (Nature). Read here.

A new US economic playbook to lead the world economy and counter China. (Atlantic Council). Read here.

Why Southeast Asia became a spyware hotspot. A new Amnesty International report raises difficult questions (Rest of World). Read here.

Welcome to the Laser Wars. Amid a rising tide of adversary drones and missile attacks, laser weapons are finally poised to enter the battlefield (Wired). Read here.

Mystery in the Alps: A Chinese Family, a Swiss Inn and the World’s Most Expensive Weapon. Switzerland agreed to buy F-35 jet fighters to park on a remote runway. Then the U.S. zeroed in on the Wangs, who owned the rustic hotel next door (Wall Street Journal). Read here.

How Is China Responding to the Inauguration of Taiwan’s President William Lai? (CSIS). Read here.

The North Korean and Chinese Threats Are Growing. But so Is the Trilateral Response. With renewed support from Russia and China, there are fears that a North Korean crisis is coming. In light of this, the trilateral security relationship among the United States, Japan, and South Korea has reached a new level of cooperation (Council on Foreign Relations). Read here.

The Unusual Espionage Act Case Against a Drone Photographer. In seemingly the first case of its kind, the US Justice Department has charged a Chinese national with using a drone to photograph a Virginia shipyard where the US Navy was assembling nuclear submarines (Wired). Read here.

That’s it for this month, folks.

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there.

Grant Rayner

Spartan9