Today’s operational landscape is complex, shaped by complex environments where leaders face more risks and threats and must work with security teams on addressing an array of internal and external challenges on any given day across the external environment. These include globalization, geopolitical volatility, cyber-physical threats, and civil unrest. Keeping people, assets, operations, and reputations safe is a task that requires constant work and continuous monitoring of information in a world where new data is created and shared at speeds and in quantities unlike we’ve ever seen before.
Organizations leveraging traditional reactive security strategies are at greater risk of facing financial loss, along with reputational harm, operational disruptions, and an overall escalation of vulnerabilities. Why? Reacting to a threat once it has already infiltrated the business is a failure. Leaders and security teams need to adopt proactive, preventative strategies that focus on understanding the current situation while also anticipating emerging risks. Staying ahead of the threat is the success that all security teams should be in search of, especially when a single dangerous situation can rapidly escalate.
The way to achieve this is via Situational Awareness (SA). The term situational awareness can be defined by the core cognitive process that enables proactive human decision-making. And it is the key way for security teams to help their leaders make the right decisions to not only mitigate through crises, but avoid them all together.
Levels of Situational Awareness
There are three levels of Situational Awareness, and each plays a different role in aiding teams through the process: Perception, Comprehension, and Projection. Each level is important in helping leaders and teams best understand what information is needed to help keep their organization on track for success and therefore, which threats and risks are the most dangerous. Those with advanced Situational Awareness skills will be able to anticipate the best tactics for the business and be most proficient in making proactive decisions in stressful situations, accounting for both human factors and operational constraints.
Level 1. Perception: Gathering the Data and Understanding “What is happening?”
Perception is the real-time monitoring and ingestion of data. Today we have many ways to obtain data, including broadcast, paper, and digital news outlets; social media networks; intelligence feeds; OSINT; the dark web; chat rooms to name a few. With so many ways for information to be disseminated and obtained, organizations have more chances to discover potential threats early. That’s the good part about having more than 400 million terabytes of data produced each day. The downside is that no team has the ability of monitoring this enormous amount of information alone. If a team attempts to do this task via manual methods, they will not only become extremely overloaded and overwhelmed, but they will certainly miss important pieces of relevant information.
The best way to combat this challenge is to leverage risk intelligence technology that leverages innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) to automate the review and analysis of data. Technology is faster than any team of humans will ever be and is also stronger in the identification of anomalies in data. It is more time-consuming for humans to review data to uncover patterns and trends – technology can do it in seconds. This benefit cannot be overstated.
A valuable risk management partner will automate the critical task of data monitoring and initial analysis, freeing up security teams to spend more time diving into the data and developing the right strategies and plans versus monitoring computer screens all day to ensure a blog post or news article regarding a relevant pending threat isn’t overlooked.
More than just gathering data, advanced risk management tools will also offer security teams an array of valuable features, such as real-time graphics, dynamic dashboards, and quick reporting capabilities that not only offer stellar value adds to their work, and detect patterns that signal a growing risk, but also gives them further intel from which to guide decision-making by the executive leadership team. When machines gather the information, security teams and analysts have the time to actually determine “what is happening?”, which is exactly the purpose of this Situational Awareness step.
Level 2. Comprehension: Giving the Data Meaning and Determining “Why Does it Matter?”
Level Two is when teams focus on determining relevance; specifically – which threats are the ones we need to watch out for? Which pieces of data collected and analyzed are the ones most likely to affect specific assets, people, missions, facilities, or supply chains?
Determining the threats to focus on is more challenging than one might initially think. It entails cross-referencing, obtaining expert input, understanding motives and trends, and reviewing metadata. These activities are conducted in an effort to suss out false and misleading information, as well as eliminate human error and biases. The connecting of different pieces of information takes skill. After the puzzle is pieced together, teams need to dedicate time to understanding how the perceived elements relate to each other and how they impact and possibly threaten the organization.
This step also requires evaluating the surrounding environment to uncover possible threats and potential hazards that may otherwise be overlooked.
Level 3. Projection: Looking Ahead to Identify “What Will Happen Next?”
This last level of Situational Awareness empowers teams with the intelligence to anticipate future events before they impact operations. This is the ultimate goal for every organization as it keeps people, assets, and operations out of harm’s way entirely and prepares teams for what may occur in the near future.
A variety of forecasting techniques can come into play during Level Three, including methods like pattern recognition, geopolitical modeling, and risk trajectory assessments. These tactics impact scenario planning in a very positive way – helping security teams uncover new data and intelligence to serve up to decision-makers so they can make better, more informed decisions. By helping decision-makers determine response options in advance, the entire organization is put in a better position as the stress of making choices in a chaotic environment is eliminated. Instead leaders can calmly and carefully review data and intel, strategize a variety of response options, and then determine the best possible decisions that keeps people, facilities, and assets safe and maximizes continuous operations for all.
The Augmented Approach: Bridging the Gap Left by Traditional Methods
If teams are solely dedicated to traditional intelligence methods, they will find it very difficult to reach Level Three. This is because human-only approaches fail due to scale, speed, and information complexity. People simply can’t monitor and sort the amount of data being created today without the support of technology.
However, technology is not enough on its own either. Machine-only approaches typically skip over nuance and intent behind statements, they often neglect detecting cultural factors, and are unaware of real-world situational variables tied to a specific person or location. These are all qualities that remain connected to humans. The solution thereby lies in augmented analytics.
Combining technologies, such as AI, ML, and NLP with human expertise bridges the gap between Levels Two and Three of this process – enabling security teams to create the most accurate and useful Situational Awareness plans for their organization.
The reason why augmented analytics is the best solution – technology can review the massive amounts of data circulating, which humans cannot do, but allows experts to provide real-world knowledge and context, supporting experienced decision makers.
Continuous monitoring is unquestionably mandatory in order to maintain awareness on current risk visibility. New intelligence continually changes prioritization of what threats exist and which are most likely to cause detrimental damage to an organization. The only way to stay aware of and ahead of risks is to maintain diligence as a continuous effort and consistently reassess facilities, geographies, and internal threats. Augmented analytics will help eliminate a lot of the mundane and tedious work from security teams and allow this extremely important information to remain up to date. By eliminating the busy work from teams, they can then receive data provided by the technology and present insights to leadership to guide them on the best mitigation activities. Augmented analytics allows security teams to shift from manual data interpreters to strategic foresight leaders.
Practical Steps for Better Risk Mitigation
Once a team is committed to improving their organization’s Situation Awareness analysis, they need to begin work to complete the three levels.
Maximizing Data Visibility – Answering the Question “What is Happening?”
The best way to maximize success in Level One is to focus on approaches that connect teams with information. The more you know, the better your answer to “what is happening?” will be. Obtaining this knowledge centers around tactics such as continuous monitoring, multi-source intelligence, and alert automation. As discussed above, alert fatigue is a real challenge and the absolute only solution is to rely on technology to help teams avoid becoming overwhelmed, while still keeping them informed. Without a doubt, technology will do this faster and better than if attempted manually.
It’s important that teams realize that it is not enough to focus on the data related to one specific geography – visibility must be wide-ranging and global. In today’s interconnected business world, a crisis occurring in one region will undoubtedly have effects in other areas. For example, if a major manufacturer is forced to halt production on a part because its local government is being overthrown, or a hurricane has decimated the area, organizations relying on that specific item – and these other organizations can be, and likely are, located across oceans and time zones – will be impacted. Therefore organizations need to be aware of what is happening all over the world, specifically where they have employees and facilities, but also where their partners and third-party vendors are based as well.
Enhancing Interpretation – Answering the Question “Why Does it Matter?”
Knowing the threats across the globe is just the beginning. Teams need to be able to digest this intelligence and apply it to their specific people, assets, operations, facilities, and reputation. Using tools that auto-align threat signals with the assets that matter most will help teams answer the question “what does it matter?” in an efficient timeframe that allows them to circumvent risks with clear communication, which is often crucial for leaders and first responders alike.
Integrating internal risk profiles and environmental context for sharper relevance will be extremely useful and help organizations better hone in on the risks and threats they need to avoid at all costs.
Leveraging Projection – Answering the Question “What Will Happen Next?”
Predictive modeling and scenario planning will directly translate into better decision-making by leaders. For this reason, security teams will want to focus on risk avoidance, contingency planning, and reduced disruption costs. When a security team has a thorough understanding of the pending and trending threats, and have a confident knowledge base of their assets, they can efficiently connect which threats are the most dangerous to their organization. Understanding what’s coming and how this possibly impacts their unique organization is a massive competitive advantage.
This is the exact intelligence that will help teams support leaders in the decision making process to prevent risks, minimize financial impact, maintain safety for employees, and so much more.
Situation Awareness Must Be a Priority
Navigating uncertainty requires a mature, three-level situational awareness capability. Organizations only reach true resilience at Level Three of the process. While all three levels are essential, the first two focus on gathering and interpreting information and data. Only at Level Three will teams take intel and put it into motion. Throughout it all organizations need to consider looking beyond manual capabilities and adopting augmented solutions that make it possible to turn awareness into proactive intelligence into action.
If your organization is stalled in Level One, it might be helpful to speak to an augmented analytics expert such as Seerist. Seerist delivers unparalleled human-led expertise combined with advanced AI-driven insights. Leveraging this intelligence enables enterprises to anticipate and respond to these threats as they evolve, minimizing the impact on profitability and preventing operational disruption. Consider scheduling a demo today to see how this platform can empower informed decisions, while saving valuable time for security teams.
