Taking Advantage of Piracy

Over the last couple of years there has been talk about security companies taking advantage of piracy to earn the big money from shipping companies. I have to say that unfortunately, this is sometimes the case. However, this deserves a bit more in depth analysis than just calling every operator a "Security Company."

A real security company is one that has its own personnel, methodology, rules of Engagement, professionalism. To put it clearly, a real security company has its OWN capabilities to operate in the maritime domain.

However, there are many companies (and I use the term loosely) that claim to be a security company, and have absolutely no capabilities of their own. These are companies that are using corruption in places like Yemen, to pay off Generals to use their resources to conduct anti piracy escorts and protection. It is obvious to the real security providers as the protection provided is not close to being even adequate given the known piracy high threat areas.

these companies will provide their "security" from about Aden to Nishtun, Yemen (or return) but they can not provide security service beyond the border of Yemen, and certainly not in the Indian Ocean to either India, or to and from South Africa or Singapore.

If they are that limited in their available services, how can they call themselves a maritime security provider? These individuals are nothing more than opportunists, using available corruption in order to profit from maritime piracy.

The real problem with this, is the known active piracy areas are well beyond Yemen borders, and these individuals are profiting from a false sense of security. if they were a true service provider, with proper ethics in the industry, they would not offer such limited services, and of course, not take advantage of corruption to profit.

Any security safeguard should be put into place with decisions made based on proper risk assessments. There is no cookie cutter approach and there is no one assessment that can cover all vessels. In the maritime world, every ship is its own entity on the water and should be treated as such.

When security providers offer a 'catch all' solution, only covering a very limited known high risk area, that is when questions should be asked and the red flag should appear. These are the ones taking advantage of piracy to profit without proper regard to realistic security.