Security does need defining. It includes fraud and other crimes perpetrated within – or against – an organisation. I have long suggested that the culture of ex-police officers commanding the top security jobs in the private sector was wrong – a great policeman does not necessarily make for a great security professional.

The military then muscled their way in but, thankfully, that particular culture now seems to be on the decline. Security is effectively an industry within an industry, and it’s now rightly the security professional commanding the top security post. Ex-police service or military personnel simply topping up their pensions is a cancer within the industry that gives us all a bad name.

On another point, ‘security’ should report to the highest level in an organisation. The security professional’s positioning on an organisational structure chart visibly displays that organisation’s attitude towards the discipline. I for one am not naïve enough to believe that ‘security’ will ever be a main Board function.

‘Security’ should be a stand-alone function with its own identity, but at the same time fully-integrated within the business as opposed to being a bolt-on, to be thought of only in times of strife. In no way must security ever become a mere sub-set of facilities or Human Resources.