SPS unveils new 24/7 security Operations Centre
'IT threats are among the major
new issues on the horizon'
Andy Young of SPS, tells Yachting Pages
Superyacht security is among the many industry niches that will be represented at this year's Monaco Yacht Show (MYS).
Special Projects and Services Limited (SPS) of Hereford, UK, is among the companies appearing in Monaco. It specialises in maritime security and training for superyachts and megayachts.
SPS will be present to meet a wide range of clients and senior contacts at MYS 2012, and to discuss its new Unity SPS company which will provide maritime security for commerical companies, rather than private superyachts.
SPS already has an established reputation in the yacht market for providing specialist security teams for yacht clients. With the new company Unity SPS, it hopes to add a greater capacity to its offerings.
Andy Young, managing director of SPS said, "Superyacht crews are very close knit and remain on board for extended periods.
"Therefore it is important that our yacht security teams fit in and work well within this environment. They must understand the protocols of working on board very expensive yachts and have plenty of prior superyacht experience."
Aside from Unity SPS, Andy and his team's other big talking point in Monaco is SPS's new high tech 24/7 Operations Centre. The centre has been specially built to track SPS's maritime and land based clients with state-of-the-art gadgets.
"The Ops Centre provides a professional tracking and response capability on a 24/7 basis," explained Andy. "It can provide considerable peace of mind for any client, family or person who holds the security responsibility for an organisation."
"We provide individual tracking devices to our security teams. These are
then tracked via satellite, 24/7, or via smart phone for land-based or
low-to-medium threat environments. We are seeing a lot of client interest, not only in the maritime based applications but the land requirements as well."
Andy explained the benefits of the Ops Centre, which include, "An ability to respond to a client or our own security team alert and liaise with authorities worldwide. Yacht management teams can now have comfort that, if an emergency situation occurs, they have an expert on call who is ready to respond."
Yachting Pages asked Andy what kinds of security issues face a high profile superyacht event like the MYS. He revealed that MYS's security team may have their work cut out for them.
"Given the number of people who travel to the event, the desire to rapidly but adequately screen people as they enter, from land or sea and the types of potential security issues that could arise… It isn't the easiest event to provide security for!"
For now, the SPS team will continue to prepare for new challenges and threats in maritime security. Andy predicts that IT threats are among the major new issues on the horizon.
"The threat to Information Security and IT systems is a serious concern and a very specialist area, which should not be addressed in isolation, but as part of a client's Risk Assessment," he told Yachting Pages. "The geographical spread of security threats is also a concern."
"Pirates have started to mount attacks within the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. It is not unreasonable to suggest that in the current economic climate that an increase in criminal activity could be expected, even in areas deemed to be relatively safe."
