May 18 2010: Daniel McAteer, joins Mitig8 Energy Engineering as Director, bringing with him a broad depth of experiance in the Oil, Gas and Marine Industry.
Jul 09 2009: 85% of all world trade travels by sea. Maritime shipping is therefore an essential, key and vulnerable service in the vital, fragile supply chain which spans the consumer world. The global supply chain is therefore recognised as one of the highest priority targets for politically, religiously and criminally motivated extremist protagonists. Their ultimate adverse aim is to severely and decisively impact on the economic and social effectiveness of what are seen as iconic businesses reliant on the global supply chain and, ultimately, the destabilisation of the global economy. Such acts of geopolitical violence, as previously experienced, also bring with them death, injury and trauma.
Jul 09 2009:
PART I: THE THREAT.
Irrespective of where the threat comes from, be it political violence in the shape of home grown and international terrorism, piracy or other forms of serious organised and violent crime, the fact remains that there is a palpable sustained global increase in extreme hostile actions on land, in the air and, progressively, against high value marine assets. These extreme hostile actions are intended to provide financial and motivational support in achieving a range of politically and criminally driven malevolent objectives. In addition to simple straight forward financial theft, these objectives include fund raising for the purchase of conventional weapons, explosives and equipment in support of terrorist groups; demoralisation by inflicting high casualty counts; acts of sabotage and subversion; aggressive political propaganda activity and civil unrest (riots, strikes and malicious damage). According to Government expert analysts and UK Intelligence & Security Services, the threat remains acute. There is also an ever growing risk of extreme hostile organisations acquiring the ability to create a range of weapons of mass destruction using chemical, biological, nuclear and radioactive (CBNR) materials – all of which could be directed against what may be termed as ‘popular’ targets.
Jul 09 2009: There is an urgent need to encourage insurance companies to provide cost efficient marine insurance cover. Maritime companies must help to make this possible by demonstrating they have taken appropriate and effective measures against the risk of increasingly violent acts of terrorism, hijacking, piracy and armed robbery at sea. But very few maritime company managers, or their security staff, currently have a realistic understanding of the risks they face from the increasing threat of maritime political and criminal violence; and even fewer are adequately equipped to provide the necessary skills and techniques for carrying out accurate situation analysis, threat assessment and risk management, including dealing with vulnerabilities by means of effective contingency planning.
Jul 09 2009: Hijackers, be they terrorists, pirates and/or armed robbers, perpetrating politically motivated maritime violence for personal gain, and on behalf of a wide range of ideologically driven extremist organisations, are becoming increasingly sophisticated, more organised and capable of undertaking acts of extreme political violence against vulnerable maritime targets. Hijackers consider they have a comparative advantage at sea, mostly because of the vast areas of water naval ships carrying out counter-measures have to cover on protection duties, and the fact that not every cargo ship, cruise ship or passenger liner can be afforded an escort through high risk shipping lanes.
Jul 09 2009: “PLANNING FOR THE WORST – HOPING FOR THE BEST”
Maritime hijacking and kidnapping is fast becoming a boom industry. The hijacking of cargo vessels of all nomenclatures, and the kidnapping of their crews and passengers for ransom, has become a recognised way for political activists and criminals to gain income and publicity. But it must also be understood that the increased practical experiences these protagonists are gaining, will escalate the likelihood of cruise ships, passenger liners and private yachts (especially high end net worth owners of Super Yachts, crew and passengers, and Round The World Yacht Race crews) being regarded as vulnerable iconic targets, and therefore considered viable in meeting their highly motivated objectives. The recent incident involving the Maersk Alabama, which resulted in fatalities, has also engendered the menace of future physical retribution, which now places the overall risk of violence at a much higher level.
Maritime companies operating in high risk areas can no longer ignore the threat to life posed by increasingly violent incidents. This means the need for effective, quality risk management has never been greater. Effective risk management is easy if you are in the unique position of being able to eliminate the source of the threat yourself. However, when dealing with national and international terrorism, hijacking, piracy, armed robbery and other, serious organised violent crimes perpetrated at sea, then the ‘elimination’ is very definitely best left to the experts, i.e. the Government – typically in the form of the Security and Intelligence Services, Special, Forces and the Law Enforcement Agencies.
In the meantime, while we are waiting for the threat(s) to be ‘eliminated’, the threat(s) are sadly alive and reasonably well; busy pursuing their own particular nefarious political, religious, military, criminal etc. motivated aims and objectives which are, unfortunately, increasingly being directed at Western commercial and private maritime targets, such as the freight, luxury yacht, cruise and passenger industries, - i.e. you.
Unfortunately, as you are a recipient of this letter, it means we consider your company falls well within the qualifying category, which earns your company assets (i.e. ships, crew, cargo, passengers) the nomenclature of ‘targets’.
Jun 09 2009: **PRESS RELEASE**
Jun 09 2009: Mitig8 Specialist Risk Services are pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher Davey Best as head of their Marine Security operations.
Dec 23 2008: Mitig8 Launches its new website which contains our two other companies that forms the Mitig8 Group.
Dec 23 2008: Mitig8 expands its operation and has employed David Sinclair. David is an experienced Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Loss Adjuster with over 30 years experience in the industry.
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Mitig8 provides a total quality service for the insurance industry. We have formed two further companies under the Mitig8 Group to provide insurers with some of the most experienced people within their disciplines. Mitig8 Energy Engineering provide Loss Control Surveys within the Power Industry, such as Oil and Gas, Desalination Plants, Gas Turbines, Wind Farms and LNG Plants. We call upon any of our disciplines to form a team on single or multiple projects. To find out more, visit our MICRO-SITE by clicking the logo below.