By Kelly Mongan
Awareness and preparedness are essential to preventing mass casualty events. However, as the volume of data – both structured and unstructured – around the world continues to grow and rising economic pressures are limiting the resources to digest that data, the Risk-Confidence Gap widens and the identification of actors that pose a genuine threat becomes more difficult. Babel Street Insights seeks to lessen this gap and make it easier for intelligence analysts and security personnel to identify potential threats and adjust their preparedness guidelines accordingly.
In the United Kingdom, there has been a laser focus on this area since the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack[1] when 22 concert-goers were killed by a bomb explosion upon leaving the arena. Investigations and public consultations following the attack ultimately led to the introduction of Martyn’s Law — officially titled the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill[2] — in December 2022. Martyn’s Law, named after Manchester victim Martyn Hett, is aimed at ensuring venues are actively involved in preventing similar attacks and are adequately prepared in the event of an attack.
Under the first draft of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, venues across the United Kingdom will be entrusted with an enhanced duty to protect their patrons from potential terrorist attacks. Public premises with capacity as low as 100 will be impacted by these new requirements, with the bulk of preparedness regulations applying to those venues with capacity of 800 or more.
How Babel Street Can Help
To be as prepared as possible, venues need to be aware of threats to their events and/or patrons. With its breadth of data sources and AI-enabled multilingual search capabilities, Babel Street Insights has already helped deliver this awareness to security teams worldwide, protecting tens of thousands of event-goers in the process.
UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat recently stated in a speech at the International Security Expo, “The reality is that today’s enemies, sadly are lurking on the internet and in the shadows.”[3] Threat actors may try to hide behind a username, or delete published threats; however, that doesn’t mean that they cannot be identified and stopped. Babel Street Insights can persistently collect publicly available information based on targeted keywords in multiple languages, filter out the noise, and deliver the most important insights to the hands of its users. This means that security professionals can spend less time looking for threats and more time addressing them.
End Notes
1. Manchester Arena Inquiry, https://manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk
2. Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, UK Home Office, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154100/Terrorism__Protection_of_Premises__Draft_Bill_-_Command_Paper.pdf
3. Security Minister Speech at International Security Expo, Gov.UK, Sept 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/security-minister-speech-at-international-security-expo
