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In coordination with our cross-sector public safety partners, Titan Security is monitoring the following protest and demonstration activity in Chicago.

Pending Protest Activity

Safety Tips Near/During Protests

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated, efficient, and customized safety and security solutions from a single source.

In partnership with a range of cross-sector public-safety agencies, Titan Security is monitoring the following event and protest activities.

Anticipated Demonstration Activity

Safety Tips Near/During Protests

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated, efficient, and customized safety and security solutions from a single source.

In coordination with our cross-sector public safety partners, Titan Security has identified the following protest or demonstration activities during the month of April.

Anticipated Demonstrations

Notes/Analysis

* = Other affiliated protests may occur around the one-year anniversary of the police-involved shooting of teen Adam Toledo

Safety Tips Near/During Protests

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated, efficient, and customized safety and security solutions from a single source.

As has been widely reported in the media, there is a heightened cyber threat due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. A range of Russian governmental and nongovernmental entities have been observed taking preparatory steps for offensive computer actions targeting Western infrastructure. While there is no specific and credible threat to the Chicago real estate community from the most recent information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), staying alert to such attacks is of the utmost importance for all organizations regardless of industry.

There are steps that all organizations can take in assuring they are following the best methods to avoid cyber threats to their operations. First, for your reference, review documents from the DHS regarding protecting vital internal components known as building automation systems (BAS) or supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA).

Second, verify and update your emergency contacts. Cyber-attacks are often intentionally launched on weekends or holidays to maximize confusion within the targeted organization. It is vital that all staff have access to an updated list of after-hours phone and email contacts for key operational leadership.

Finally, please share information about potential threats with your information technology (IT) professional and/or your engineers or engineering contractors. Not only are these professionals responsible for large segments of your cyber infrastructure, but they have also been specifically targeted in spearphishing attacks seeking to compromise these systems.

As outlined by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), there is a three-step process to help organizations improve their resilience and reduce vulnerability against such attacks: Prepare, Mitigate, Respond.

Prepare

Mitigate

CISA recommends critical infrastructure organizations apply the following mitigations to defend against potential future threats and prevent severe functional degradation if the organization falls victim to a ransomware attack.

Respond

Step 1: Should your organization become a victim of ransomware, CISA strongly recommends implementing your cyber incident response plan by using the checklist below. Be sure to move through the first three steps in sequence.

Step 2: Determine which systems were impacted and immediately isolate them.

Step 3: If and only if you are unable to disconnect devices from the network, power them down to avoid further spread of the ransomware infection.

Step 4: Assign impacted systems for restoration and recovery.

Step 5: Confer with your team to develop and document an initial understanding of what has occurred based on initial analysis.

Step 6: Engage your internal and external teams and stakeholders with an understanding of what they can provide to help you mitigate, respond to, and recover from the incident. Strongly consider requesting assistance from a third-party incident response provider or CISA.

If no initial mitigation actions appear possible:

Step 7: Take a system image and memory capture of a sample of affected devices. Additionally, collect any relevant logs as well as samples of any “precursor” malware binaries and associated observables or indicators of compromise. Note: take care to preserve evidence that is highly volatile in nature—or limited in retention—to prevent loss or tampering.

Step 8: Consult federal law enforcement regarding possible decryptors available, as security researchers have already broken the encryption algorithms for some ransomware variants.

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated, efficient, and customized safety and security solutions from a single source.

In coordination with our cross-sector partners, Titan Security is providing this updated list of pending demonstration activity in and near the Chicago Loop.

Anticipated Events and Demonstrations

Notes/Analysis

* = Note that multiple pro-Ukrainian demonstrations have been taking place on short notice in or near the Loop, including pedestrian marches and car caravans

** = March 29 is the one-year anniversary of the death of Adam Toledo; spontaneous protests or demonstrations are likely in addition to the listed event

Safety Tips Near/During Protests

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated, efficient, and customized safety and security solutions from a single source.

Titan Security is a proud participant in the leadership of the BOMA/Chicago Preparedness Committee, dedicated to the safety of high rise commercial structures in the City of Chicago. Minutes from the most recent monthly meeting of the group on March 15, 2022 are shared below.

ABOUT BOMA/Chicago

BOMA/Chicago is a trade association that has represented the interests of the Chicago office building industry since 1902. Membership includes approximately 240 commercial office, institutional and public buildings and about 170 companies that provide commercial building services to support operational excellence. BOMA/Chicago members constitute approximately 80 percent of all rentable office space and more than 98 percent of rentable space in Class A buildings downtown.

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Chicagoland community. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-eight consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated and efficient, customized security solutions from a single source.

In cooperation with our cross-sector safety partners, Titan Security is monitoring the events around the 2022 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle, set to be held on Sunday March 20. The following streets will be closed to traffic between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. as runners pass through the area:

Parking on these streets will not be allowed starting at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday March 20. There will be limited vehicle access through Grant Park for the duration of the event, from 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 19, to approximately 3 p.m., on Sunday, March 20. The street closures will follow a “rolling pattern” so that as the last participant passes, the street will reopen and traffic will return to normal as quickly as possible. Please make adjustments to your schedule to avoid any inconvenience.

DuSable Lake Shore Dr., Ida B. Wells Dr. and N. Michigan Ave. will remain open throughout the weekend. To view a full map of all the closures and the routes for the Shamrock Shuffle, please visit the link below.

Click here for the Shamrock Shuffle race routes

Safety Tips Near/During Large Events

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated and efficient, customized security solutions from a single source.

In coordination with our cross-sector safety partners, Titan Security is monitoring the following anticipated special events, protests, and demonstrations.

Upcoming Activities

Notes/Analysis

* = The St. Patrick’s Day parade will be preceded by the dyeing of the Chicago River at approximately 9:30am, this year extending slightly west to Wolf Point
** = Multiple pro-Ukrainian demonstrations have been taking place on short notice in or near the Loop, including pedestrian marches and car caravans

*** = March 29 is the one-year anniversary of the death of Adam Toledo; spontaneous protests or demonstrations likely in addition to the listed event

Safety Tips Near/During Protests

As always, if you “See Something, Say Something.” For life-threatening emergencies, call 911. To report suspicious activity, call 855-RPRT-2-S4 (855-777-8274).

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Midwest. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated and efficient, customized security solutions from a single source.

Titan Security was pleased to attend the monthly meeting of the Chicago Public-Private Task Force (CPPTF) on the morning of Thursday, March 10, helping to represent the cultural properties and commercial high-rise sectors. The group, co-chaired by the Office of Emergency Management and Communications and ChicagoFIRST, brings together organizations and associations from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to address common concerns.

About Titan Security Group

Titan launched in 1994 with a vision for a better way to provide security services to the Chicagoland community. Today, Titan is one of the largest security companies in North America, scheduling approximately 80,000 hours per week, employing more than 2,000 security staff, and have enjoyed over twenty-seven consecutive years of successfully serving our clients across a wide range of industries. Titan delivers results to clients through flexible, customized security solutions, and superior customer service. The Titan approach combines traditional security staffing with electronic security systems to provide integrated and efficient, customized security solutions from a single source.

“Thought Leadership” by Tom Henkey, CEM
Director of Emergency Management

Given what has taken place between March 2020 and March 2022, you may be forgiven if you can’t quite recall what “normal” was like.

After all, the past two years have seen a massive international disruption in the form of a viral pandemic, driving a global economic recession. We’ve had widespread civil unrest and mass demonstrations, extreme weather patterns, plus unprecedented political violence in our nation’s capital. And now we have the largest conflict in Europe since World War II (on top of simmering civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Ethiopia).   

“The only thing constant is change” is a maxim for a reason. After an extended period of relative stability, we seem to be living in very unsettled times. And there appear to be no immediate solutions to these widespread foreign and domestic crises.

There are many, many different lenses through which to examine these challenges. Political. Public health. Financial. International relations. Cultural. Societal. And this would merely scratch the surface.

Yet from a strategic organizational perspective there is one striking commonality: the status quo is not a fixed point. In other words, change has been the one constant over the past 24 months. The organizations and entities which have adapted and evolved during this period have been those which enjoyed relative success. Organizations which were overly rigid in their perceptions or actions have been those which suffered the most.

If we are to truly take the long view, the most valuable lesson from these volatile times may be the importance of understanding that status quo is not the norm. In other words, we cannot presume that the most critical factors in our operation are fixed and unchanging. On the contrary, we should be looking at how large-scale disruptions in one part of our operations may impact the whole. Preparedness and flexibility are emerging as invaluable traits.

The recent Russian aggression in Ukraine is a prime example. The two nations had been involved in a significant border dispute since Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and started a proxy war leveraging Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens in the eastern portion of the country. The situation was deeply disruptive locally and cost thousands of human lives, but its significant impacts did not extend beyond the immediate region.

That all changed in the last week of February when Russian artillery shells screamed across the border into Ukraine, followed by columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers. A regional conflict very suddenly became the world’s problem. Locally, the status quo did not hold.

Germany openly provided lethal aid and weapons systems to Ukraine, its first such international shipment in at least three decades. Finland and Sweden are now publically considering joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to bolster their defenses against Russian aggression. More than one million refugees streamed out of war-torn Ukraine into neighboring states in just one week of conflict. Regionally, the status quo did not hold.

Sanctions and massive financial penalties were quickly leveled against Russia, from across the political and geographic spectrum. Alliances which stood unchallenged for decades suddenly shifted as the clear and obvious aggressor faced pariah status at the United Nations. In an already unsettled global market, oil and grain prices skyrocketed as two key producers and distributors actively fired shells at one another. Internationally, the status quo did not hold.

The real lesson for organizations large and small is that a distant conflict can have massive impacts on local, regional, and international levels. This interconnectedness is what makes global political and economic systems resilient and functional (most of the time). It also means that any organization that failed to prepare for an alternate shipping route, alternate grain supply, or a spike in fuel costs was going to be in for a true and lasting shock.

We don’t yet know if we have truly turned a corner on the COVID pandemic. We can’t be sure that we have seen the worst of the civil unrest or political violence here in the U.S. We cannot be positive about how the outcome of the invasion of Ukraine will affect long-term commodity prices and availability.

But we can be assured that change is a constant. And we can be certain that organizations truly preparing for shocks and disruptions will fare better in the long term.