INTRODUCTION TO SECURITY

This chapter provides as the elementary concepts of security and security management. It
presents the general overview of security. A definition of security management is also given to
make us understand the groundwork of the administrative processes or procedures in the
operational environment of security as applied in the Philippines setting.

A. Security in General

1. Definition of Security

Security, in a collective sense, is the same as protection and safety; the state of
being safe and the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual,
financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological or other types or
consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which
could be considered not desirable.

Security is also freedom from fear, harm, danger, loss, destruction or damages.

Basically, it is the action of man against man that led to many unsecured and
unsafe conditions, Reasons could be economic, revenge, or unjust plain greed and
avarice. Whatever the motives, the civilized man needs adequate protection.

2. Fields of Security

The following are the fields of security classified according to each sphere or
subjects;

a) IT FIELDS

 Computing Security – is a branch of information security applied to both

theoretical and actual computer systems. Computer security is a branch of
computer science that addresses enforcement of “secure” behavior on the
operation of computers. The definition of “secure” varies by application, and is
typically defined implicitly or explicitly by a security policy that addresses
confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic information that is
processed by or stored on computer systems.

 Data Security - is the means of ensuring that data is kept safe from corruption
and that access to it is suitably controlled. Thus data security helps to ensure
privacy. It also helps in protecting personal data.

 Application Security – encompasses measures taken to prevent exceptions in the

security policy of an application or the underlying system through flaws in the
design, development, or deployment of the application.

Page 1
  Information Security – means protecting information and information systems
from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction.

The terms information security, computer security and information

assurance are frequently used interchangeably. These fields are interrelated and
share the common goals of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability
of information; however, there are some subtle differences between them. These
differences lie primarily in the approach to the subject, the methodologies used,
and the areas of concentration. Information security is concerned with the
confidentiality, integrity and availability of data regardless of the form the data
may take: electronic, print, or other forms.

 Network Security – consists of the provisions made in an underlying computer

network infrastructure, policies adopted by the network administrator to protect
the network and the network-accessible resources from unauthorized access and
the effectiveness (or lack) of these measures combined together.

b) PHYSICAL SECURITY

 Physical Security – describes measures that prevent or deter attackers from

accessing a facility, resource, or information stored on physical media. It can be
as simple as a locked door or as elaborated as multiple layers of armed guard
posts.

 Shopping Center Security (Mall or Supermarket) – a type of security which is

concern with the protection of the stores, warehouses, storage, its immediate
premises and properties as well as the supermarket personnel and customers.
Security personnel are trained to detect “shoplifter”, robbery, and bomb detection
and customer relation.

 Airport Security – refers to the techniques and methods used in protecting

airports and by extension aircraft from crime and terrorism.

 Home Security – are those methods use of protecting residential homes or town
sites which include the interior protection of houses against property losses or
damages.

c) POLITICAL FIELD

 International Security – consists of the measures taken by nations and

international organizations, such as United Nations, to ensure mutual survival and
safety. These measures include military action and diplomatic agreements such as
treaties and conventions. International and national security is invariably linked.

Page 2
  National Security – refers to the requirement to maintain the survival of the
nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the
exercise of diplomacy.

 Human Security – refers to an emerging paradigm for understanding global

vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national
notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should
be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-
centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability.

d) MONETARY FIELD

 Financial Security – refers to the methods applied for the protection of fungible,
negotiable instrument representing financial value. It broadly categorized into
debt securities, such as banknotes, bonds and debentures, and equity securities,
etc.

3. Types of Security

a. Industrial Security – a type of security applied to business groups in industries

like manufacturing, assembling, research and development, processing,
warehousing and even agriculture.

b. Hotel Security – a type of security applied to hotels where its properties are
protected from pilferage, loss, damage, and the function in the hotel restaurants
are not disturbed and troubled by outsiders or the guest themselves. This type of
security employs house detectives, uniforms guard and supervisor and insures that
hotel guests and their personal effects are safeguarded.

c. Bank Security – this type of security is concern with bank operations. Its main
objective is the protection of bank cash and assets, its personnel and clientele.
Security personnel are trained to safeguard bank and assets while in storage, in
transit and during transactions.

d. VIP Security – a type of security applied for the protection of top-ranking

officials of the government or private entity, visiting persons of illustrious
standing and foreign dignitaries.

e. School Security – a type of security that is concern with the protection of

students, faculty members, and school properties. Security personnel are trained
to protect the school property from theft, vandals, handling campus riots and
detecting the use of intoxicated drugs and alcohol by the students.

Page 3
4. Principal Divisions of Security

PERSONNEL
SECURITY
PHYSICAL DOCUMENT/
SECURITY INFORMATION
SECURITY

a. Personnel Security - this is as important as physical security. Personnel Security

starts even before the hiring of an employee and remains to be maintained for
as long as the person is employed.

Its purpose is to insure that a firm hires those best suited to assist the firm
in achieving its goals and objectives and once hired assist in providing
necessary security to the work force while carrying out their functions.

b. Physical Security – this concern with the physical measures adopted to prevent
unauthorized access to equipment, facilities, material and document and to
safeguard them against espionage, sabotage, damage, loss and theft.

c. Document and Information Security - this involves the protection of documents

and classified papers from loss, access by unauthorized persons, damage, theft
and compromise through disclosure.

Classified documents need special handling. Lack of indoctrination and

orientation among the personal handling them can result in the leakage, loss, theft
and unauthorized disclosure of the documents.

5. Security Management

In one sense, Security Management is the proper utilization of resources in a

security organization in order to meet organizational goals and objectives and to ensure
their achievements. In another sense, it is a broad field of management related to asset
management, physical security and human resource safety functions. It entails the
identification of an organization’s information assets and the development,
documentation and implementation of policies, standards, procedures and guidelines.

Page 4
 Management tools such as information classification, risk assessment and risk
analysis are used to identify threats, classify assets and to rate system vulnerabilities so
that effective control can be implemented.

B. Historical Background of Security

Many thousand years ago, some form of law and consequently some form of
enforcement can be traced back to the dawn of civilization. Four thousand years before the
birth of Christ in the Nile, Valley, man knew law enforcement which is security. The
Chinese, the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Persians and the Roman empires are replete with
historical background of security.

In the Christian ear or after the birth of Christ, the watchman, forerunner of the security
guard was known in the old Testaments.

Security or law enforcement more often than not appeared to be military troops. During
the time that the countries were governed by royal families, military bodyguards or
guardsmen picked from the elite troops comprised of the household troops assigned to Royal
Families. Famous among them the Praetorian Guards of Ancient Rome and the Mameluke of
Egypt. Today, the only remaining are the Swiss Guards at the Vatican in Rome.

During the Age of Feudalism, the Anglo-Saxons brought with them the England
organizations made up of individuals to protect civil and military groups. The formal system
of security during the middle ages follows largely the refinements of existing practices. The
Anglo-Saxons from Germany, for six hundred years consolidated England under a fairly
legal system. The basic ties of society were kinship and the voluntary association between
lord and man. Kinship was the bond on which the individual depended for security and
mutual aid in all his affairs. Between lord and man, the fact was bilateral. In return for such
relationship man provided the lord with weapons, horses, land and treasures and gave total
unswerving loyalty. The system of social structure was known as the “frank-pledge”; groups
of ten householders were considered a unit called “tithing”, ten “tithing” constituted the
police organization in criminal matters. During these times the Anglo-Saxons in the exercise
of law used the oath or the ordeal for a system or justice. Failure to appear before the court to
answer a charge made one on outlaw.

In the history of England, the Norman period administered by William of Normandy

brought about such personality as “shire reeves” whose duties are directed toward
preservation of peace and order within their jurisdiction. Under the rule of Henry II, known
as the “Law Giver”, he established a truth between those crimes. Henry II has initiated the
rule of law as distinct from the more arbitrary judgments of the Normans. The Assize of
Clarendon in 1166 provided the origin of trial by jury. After the Norman period, in “1215”
the “Magna Carta” was signed. It established the “principle of due process” by stating that no
freeman could be arrested, imprisoned, deprived of his property, outlawed ort exiled or “in
any way destroyed except by legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the Land”. It
established the important principle that everyone including the king is subject to law. It was

Page 5
at that time that a central court system was established where in such institutions and courts
like the coroners, Justice of the Peace, Chancery courts, the Privy Councils were established.

In 1784, author and magistrate Henry Fielding proposed a permanent, profession and
adequately paid security force. His most valuable contribution was the “Foot Patrol” to make
the streets safe and mounted patrol for the highways.

The Industrial Revolution during the latter half of the 18th Century began to gather
momentum. The time people flocked to the cities lured by promises of work and wages. The
crowding of the cities with the influx of wealth seeker brought theory, crimes of violence and
juvenile delinquencies. Then came the “Laisses Faire” which contended that labor was the
source of wealth; and it was by freedom of labor, that public wealth would best be promoted.
Crime rates spiraled the response to high crimes brought citizens to resort to carrying of
firearms for protection and they continued to band together to hire special police to protect
homes and properties. This was the beginning of private security.

In America, security practices in the early days of the colonization followed those of
England. Mutual protection and accountability characterized the various groups. The
American Revolution sprang and the “Declaration of Independence was born”. Police power
is bestowed upon the state to permit interference with the normal personal and property rights
in the interest of conducting government in the general public interest.” In 1783, a police
Department was established in New York City, followed by Detroit in 1801, Cincinnati in
1803, Chicago in 1846, Los Angeles in 1850, Philadelphia in 1855 and Dallas in 1856.

The advent of the World War II causes an even more dramatic development of private
security agencies. Security personnel constituted a large work force, looking for jobs
involving security services and thus usher in the era of Modern Security.

In 1859, Allan Pinkerton, a cooper from Scotland and the Chicago Police Department’s
first detective established one of the oldest private security forces in the United States. This
company aside from providing investigation of crimes and security for industrial concerns
also serves as the intelligence gathering arm of the Union Army during the Civil War. In
1889, Brinks Incorporated started the business as a private service to protect property
payrolls. In 1909, the William J, Burns, Inc was formed to become the sole investigating
agency for the American Banking Association. Pinkerton and Burns were the only National
Investigative bodies concerned with non-specialized crime until the advent of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

In the Philippines, it would be wise to trace the steps leading to the final signing by
President Ferdinand E. Marcos on June 13, 1969 of Republic Act 5487, the Private Security
Agency Law. In this law was assigned the most important role of Security Guard Force in
assisting the Police in its mission to safeguard lives and properties. The then Philippine
Constabulary (PC) played a great role in supervising all Private Constabulary issued Staff
Memo dated August 4, 1969 creating the Philippine Constabulary Security and Investigation
Agency Supervisory Office (PCSIASO). After barely two (2) months another General Staff
Memo was issued renaming PCISASO to PCSOSIA. On June 29, 1970, it was again renamed

Page 6
as PC Supervisory Unit for Security and Investigation Agency (SUSIA). However, the
supervision was later on transferred to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency
(NICA). With the intention of continuously professionalizing the security industry, several
Presidential Decrees were issued such as PD No. 11 issued on October 1972, amending
certain sections of RA 5487 particularly Sections 4 as to who may organize a security and
watchman agency; PD 100 on January 17, 1973 further amended Sections 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9
which permits the watchman or security guard to assist in cases of emergency disaster or
calamity.

With the creation of the Philippine National Police on January 1, 1991 pursuant to RA
6975, PCSUSIA became Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies
(SOSIA) and on January 01, 1995 it was renamed as PNP SAGSD (Security Agencies and
Guards Supervision Division). This Unit of the PNP was given the same functions to that of
the PCSOSIA but a more challenging and expanding tasks, To date, there are more or less
Two Thousand (2,000) registered security agencies operating in the Philippines, Five
Hundred Sixty Thousand (560,000) licensed security personnel and One Hundred Twenty
Four (124) Private Security Training Institutions.

Page 7