Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management

UPDATE: Copying of GlobalRiskInfo Blog (and others) April 24, 2012

2nd UPDATE: lT appears that the company  read my blog and has now (after April 24th) included sources to a few of their posts. Interestingly, the AKE post still does not have AKE’ information included.  I also welcome them to add my own blog to their list of references.  Here is a link to Dr. Heather Mark’s post on her experience with plagiarism.

UPDATE: Curiosity got the best of me so I started checking the other blog posts.  I should be grateful that the company did not simply cut and past my content.  Here are other “borrowed items”.  It is a disgrace when a company cannot do their own work.  At a minimum, writers are required to cite their sources and give attribution.  The absence of even a mention of where the content originated is, in my opinion, intended to cause the reader to assume it is original work.

April 11th, 2012 Post- “Pirates Demand Dh11M to Free Hostages” is a direct cut and paste of The National.ae post of the same name.

April 9th, 2012 Post- “Somali Pirates hijack Vessel with 17 on Board” is a direct cut and paste of an MSNBC.com article of the same name that originally was published on Indiatoday.

The most glaring of these actions can be seen in the post titled: “Somali Pirate Activity Reaches 15 Month High”.  This was originally an article of the same name published by Bloomberg where the information was provided by Intelligence Company AKE who also provides Maritime Security.  The article was copied verbatim with all references to AKE removed.  The intent is clear.

It is pointless to review any further.

 ORIGINAL Few things frustrate a writer more than someone using their work without attribution.  Today a company introduced new blog with numerous posts dated from Jan 2012-April 2012 .  In reviewing the blog, it certainly appears that the company has done little more than “borrow” my own work and not provide attribution to me..the originating author.

Of 15 posts, fully 1/3 appear to be  summaries of my own work.   Maybe I should be flattered?  Maybe the company is simply acknowledging my expertise over their own. Feel free to read the articles and decide…(each of the GlobalRiskInfo posts predate the summarized posts)

1. GlobalRiskInfo.com- “Asymmetric Warfare 101” other blog- “Asymmetry Warfare 101” (really?..can’t even bother to change the name?)
2. GlobalRiskInfo.com- “Armed Security; Increasing Competition & Decreasing Demand” other blog- “Increasing Competition in Armed Security”
3. GlobalRiskInfo.com- “Security101: The Human Element Trust but Verify”  other blog- “Human Element and Security Strategy”
4. GlobalRiskInfo.com- “Security 101: Defense in Depth”  other blog- “Defense in Depth, an Introduction to Security Basics”
5. GlobalRiskInfo.com- “Piracy Costs World Economy $12Billion US” other blog- “Costs of Maritime Piracy”

This compelled me to read the whitepaper posted on their website and published in April 2012.  It appears much of the whitepapers’ content is taken (sometimes directly) from a 2005 article titled: “Al Qaeda’s Military Campaign” for which no attribution is provided.

Here is an example of one of the direct extractions.

Al Qaeda’s Military Campaign”…As in World Wars I and II, the Navy has definite, significant, and traditional roles, with missions on the front lines, in fighting and defeating a global threat.”

Whitepaper- “As in World Wars I and II, the U.S. Navy has had a definite, significant and traditional role, with missions on front lines, in fighting and defeating global threats.” (single change is in bold)

This isn’t the first time this has happened.  In a recent post, I outlined how my wife’s own work was used in a series of published articles.  The publisher has since deleted the articles after the work was identified as being from my wife and not the claiming author.