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Against Attackers, Security Needs More Than an Ounce of Prevention

By Sara Mosqueda

30 September 2025

GSX Daily 2025

Emerging threats are not limited to a single industry or physical space. Whether in schools, offices, hospitals, or public spaces, security professionals must increasingly be aware of the potential for violence.

This year has been no exception to violence—from vehicle ramming attacks on Bourbon Street and in Vancouver to the bombing of a fertility clinic in California and coordinated bombings and shootings that targeted facilities in Colombia, plus attacks in schools across several countries. While it’s easy to get caught up in a response to the latest attack or incident, the panelists at the Tuesday GSX Game Changer session, “Risk is Everywhere: Fostering Safety in the Workplace, Schools, and Public Space,” will focus on why and how prevention efforts can greatly manage or mitigate risk.

“The places that most organizations get stuck is on the flavor of the day,” says AlGene Caraulia, vice president of integration and sustainability at the Crisis Prevention Institute. When an incident or attack occurs, Caraulia sees that similar organizations get excited and are initially supportive at the idea of implementing a program to respond to or even preventing a similar attack. But as time passes and new priorities emerge, interest from the organization and its leaders often wanes. They “tend to lose their focus because they have a lot of other demands,” he adds.

Training doesn’t need to be limited to the security team, nor do the lessons learned need to focus solely on response tactics. But for any mitigation or prevention program, consistent planning and training can make all the difference.

“One of the things to keep in mind is that any organization can invest in training their staff,” says Caraulia. “But unless it becomes part of the culture, it becomes an investment that is lost.”

Like training, understanding how to identify and react to threats before they fully form can pay dividends down the line.

“The pathway to violence, homicide, suicide, radicalization, gang violence—it’s all the same pathway,” says Theresa Campbell, CEO and founder of Safer Schools Together. “The reality is that people on those pathways are easily recognizable if we know how to find what we’re looking for.”

Technology has evolved and offered applications for behavioral threat assessments, allowing users a greater chance to identify and proactively respond to would-be attackers.

“Violence is an evolutionary process. Everybody has to go through their own pathway to violence, and no two pathways to violence are the same,” Campbell says. “It means we really have to collectively take our time to gather our data to determine whether or not this individual is or is not on the pathway to violence, and if they are then where are they on that pathway?”

Such assessments have daily positive outcomes, according to Campbell. They allow an organization to identify threats and share the information with partners about a potential risk. But just as it can help prevent or identify an attack before it happens, technology has also fostered new communities that encourage individuals to pursue violence.

Online communities have continued to grow in recent years, including ones where users may cheer on each other’s efforts or plans for violence. Campbell refers to this as “virtual pairing,” and sees that it can often be a blind spot for organizations.

“It’s imperative that we start doing a better job of recognizing that before it happens,” she says. Any threat assessment process that lacks data from online communities fails to produce a full picture of the threat landscape, according to Campbell.

There is also value in going back to the basics, according to Don Aviv, CPP, PCI, PSP, CEO for Interfor International.

“Sometimes, the simple vulnerabilities are the most obvious and they’re potentially the deadliest,” Aviv says. He points to the New Year’s Day vehicle attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans as an example. “It’s beholden upon us all as a society to look at the lowest hanging fruit or the easiest routes of attack against a population center.”

To counter those threats, especially the ones that are so obvious that you might be missing them, Aviv says its important to advocate for early and regular collaborations and exercises with law enforcement and other public partners. Having discussions between these groups can shake up any existing complacency.

Having these and other prevention efforts in place can not only help mitigate an incident, but also result in other benefits across the workforce, according to Caraulia. Providing training and information to staff often results in a confidence boost when it comes to dealing with a stressful situation, while also encouraging greater awareness of one’s surroundings and the actions and behaviors of other people.

This Game Changer session—with additional insights from Aviv, Campbell, and Caraulia—will be hosted on Tuesday, 30 September, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. CT in room 260-262.

Want to learn more about violence prevention? Check out the links below for related GSX sessions, ASIS International resources, and Security Management content.

GSX Sessions