Implementing code words is a subtle yet powerful way to enhance safety within your family and business. By incorporating simple colors like blue or red into everyday sentences, you can discreetly signal a need for law enforcement or emergency assistance without alerting an aggressor. For example, asking someone to grab the blue file or telling a child to put away their red football provides a clear call to action while maintaining a calm exterior. The most effective safety plans are the ones that stay fresh in your mind so I suggest reviewing these phrases once a quarter alongside your other emergency protocols. Consistency is key to ensuring everyone knows exactly how to respond when every second counts.

The Threat is Real—and Accelerating Every 4.9 seconds, someone becomes a victim of identity theft in the United States. In 2024, over 1.1 million identity theft complaints were reported, and nearly 30% of Americans have experienced identity theft at some point in their lives. Nearly 47% of victims who contacted the Identity Theft Resource Center had been victimized more than once, making this a recurring nightmare rather than a one-time incident. Bad actors are everywhere. Thanks to the world wide web, there is no limit to attempted theft, harassment, or being taken advantage of. The digital threat landscape has become truly global. According to the World Cybercrime Index, most cybercrime originates from just six countries, with Russia, Nigeria, China, India, and Romania leading in various categories of digital crime. Nigeria remains infamous for advance-fee fraud and romance scams, while Russia hosts some of the world's most skilled ransomware operators and banking malware developers. India has become a hub for tech-support fraud and fake loan schemes, with the FBI reporting over 88,000 complaints related to tech support scams in 2023 alone. Chinese criminal networks specialize in "pig-butchering" schemes—long-term manipulations that lead to fraudulent cryptocurrency investments—while Southeast Asian scam compounds have become industrial operations, with criminals earning $3 trillion annually from scams and fraud globally, far outpacing income from the global illicit drug trade. To say nothing about exposure to the less likely but far more disruptive devious methods like stalking, targeting for tiger kidnapping (where someone holds a friend or family member hostage, requiring you to do illegal activities on their behalf), or marking a member of your family for the globally expanding human trafficking industry. That's why in this article we're going to look at the main 2 objections that I hear most often and how to maintain more privacy, specifically protecting critical information without the overwhelm.

When mastering your situational awareness skills use your "I"s to see threats coming- Irregular, Irrational, and Intentional. Irregular- look for rapid eye movement, fidgeting, rapid breathing and actions that just don't fit the situation. Irrational- look for odd language like yelling and speaking to nothing or making no sense, signs of fear, stress, or anger and generally overreacting to situations. Intentional- look for hyper-focus on someone or something, speed walking or running directly towards you and deliberate attempts to get closer to you. Remember you are responsible for your safety! #AddToYourTools

True situational awareness goes beyond superficial details like clothing or physical features; it is about mastering the art of reading behavior. A powerful way to sharpen this skill is through a five-minute daily drill I learned from Yousef Badou, one of the original instructors of the Marine Hunter Program. To begin, take a deep breath to clear your mind of any preconceived judgments and focus on those closest to you. First, starting with the people closest to you, observe their hands to see if they are visible, concealed, or holding objects, which trains you to instinctively clear potential threats. Next, evaluate their attention by noting who or what they are focused on and whether they appear to have a clear destination. Finally, scan for signs of nervous energy such as fidgeting, heavy breathing, or a flushed face. Consistently practicing this behavioral analysis will help you build genuine pattern recognition and identify anomalies before they become problems.

Check it out in the Classroom! Combat Profiling manual integrates military methods (Cooper's Color Code, Boyd's OODA Loop, Emerson's Four-Pillar Awareness, USMC Combat Profiling) for threat detection. Covers baseline establishment, behavioral analysis, body language, proxemics, environmental assessment. Includes practical drills and scenario training for airports, restaurants, hotels. Core principle: "strategic invisibility"—maintaining heightened awareness while blending in to prevent threats through early detection.