http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0509/breaking34.htm
One fifth of firms 'experience terror' Ruth <file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/Microsoft%20Shared/Stationery/#> O'Connor Approximately one fifth of companies have experienced some kind of a political attack or anticipated a terrorist attack on their home ground, according to a survey published today. The survey was conducted by Lloyds of London and the Economist Intelligence Unit. A total of 154 board-level executives were questioned for the report entitled Under attack? Global Business and the Threat of Political Violence to assess their perception of the threat to their business by political acts of violence. The industries involved were various and included a broad spectrum of small and large companies with operations as diverse as aerospace and security, media, entertainment, healthcare, pharma and logistics. Twenty four per cent of those questioned were based in Western Europe, 27 per cent in North America and 31 per cent in the Asia Pacific region. Approximately one fifth of the companies interviewed had already experienced some kind of a political attack or anticipated an attack on their home ground, the same percentage anticipated a similar attack overseas. Larger firms within the survey were most at risk or felt most vulnerable to attack. Three in five of the executives interviewed predicted a rise in political attacks in the coming years with those based in North America and the Middle East feeling most affected by such a threat. Forty seven per cent of Asian respondants anticipated an increase in political violence, as opposed to 36 per cent elsewhere. Local political issues such as religious differences, inter-state wars and local revolutioanry wars were all cited as threats to security, while in North America the main concern is of a repeat of a large-scale terroroist attack similar to the events of September 11th, 2001. Fifty four per cent of interviewees said that they believed that the risk to their company would increase over the next five years with only 5 per cent believing that the risks would decrease. Concern about general criminal activity remained stable since similar research was carried out five years ago, however concern about international terrorist activity has now become the chief concern among business leaders, with 36 per cent of respondants saying it was of primary concern compared with 28 per cent in the previous survey five years ago. While various threats were percieved by all respondants, the threats were regionalised with only 32 per cent of those located in Western Europe believing that religious extremists represent the most serious threat, as opposed to 59 per cent in the United States. 56 per cent of respondants said they believed that their company was as much at risk of political attack as government. However only 8 per cent felt that the threat was the result of the company's activities with 16 per cent feeling that their firm's home country was the reason for attacks (27 per cent from North America). 22 per cent believed that attacks were related to the broader region and 25 per cent think it is capitalism in general. Many of the executives see religious extremism as the most likely threat, however statistics show that the greatest number of incidents were actually carried out by "Marxist" groups rather than by religious groups over the past six years. While there may be a percieved increase in risk from religious groups, left-wing, nationalist and issue-oriented groups have proved responsible for the majority of attacks during this time. Political violence has, in the last five years, led: * 41 per cent of respondents to increase IT security; * 30 per cent to review business partner selection criteria; * 23 per cent to augment insurance spending and * 21 per cent to increase employee safety training. The report concludes that businesses need to have a greater connection with the community on both a local and a global level. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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