A Brave New World

Your perspective on current events, I’ve found, is largely shaped by your formative experiences. Being born in the middle of the 80s, I can still just see the last glow of the days where you could leave your door unlocked and children roamed on their bikes for miles unsupervised. The concept of having a phone on your person was almost unheard of. Certainly, security was the last thing on most people’s minds.

Fast forward to Sept. 11, 2001, woken from bed before a day in high school and watching the news, I was told that it would be a date of historical importance, and it was. The world from that day forward has been shaped by the concept of security.

Straight out of college I entered community journalism, and whether directly or indirectly, security has been at the core of everyday life. A press pass grants you a level of clearance most normal people tend not to have at events. You get access to people regularly that others will not. I remember missing an opportunity to interview members of the Arizona Supreme Court because I was held up at security, repeatedly removing and replacing my belt as security guards dug through my camera bag.

Traditional print media, however, is slow to change. It’s being left behind by anyone with a cellphone and a platform to spread their word. My old editor called it the “Historical Record,” but the power behind that is vested in the confidence of the public.

So, when I received the opportunity to work for Security Systems News, I leapt at the chance. It may seem like a whole new world, but it’s the same one we all live in, and we live in interesting times. In only the past four years or so, we’ve seen a rise in data breaches exposing sensitive information. Entire forms of warfare and traditional security methods are being upended and obsoleted with the prevalence of automated drone technology. Even now, a seemingly endless pandemic has wholesale changed the concept of work and security across the globe as it demands forward-thinking change in how we approach problem solving.

It’s exciting for me to be here at the edge of change wondering what will happen next. Security is at the core of a new paradigm for life on Earth. Like a storm on the horizon in the desert, things are changing at a breakneck pace. At the very least, I don’t think it will ever be boring.