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Bits 'n bytes

Okay, I cheated - I was in such a rush to get this issue to bed before I left for Ifsec that I did not finish writing this column, so now here I sit in the press office at Ifsec and I can give you some first impressions ahead of the review I will be doing in the July issue. Very first impression - it is HUGE! Next impression - I do not think there are many security companies across the world that are not represented here somehow - if not exhibiting then certainly in some way connected. And I have come across many South Africans too.

The first reaction I have had from so many people I have met, has been, "You are from South Africa? Is it not very dangerous there?" I really wish they could all just come here and see for themselves (okay, here I go doing the Proudly South African thing again!).

Let me share with you a few headlines I came across on News24 just before I left.

11/05/2005 18:11

The White House and US congress have been evacuated in a security alert, witnesses say.

11/05/2005 16:23

New York police have seized more than 1000 fake badges and IDs from 35 different US security agencies, says the department of homeland security.

08/05/2005 16:47

After spending more than $4,5 bn on screening devices to monitor anti-terrorism the US is now moving to spend more.

Then, I had such a giggle yesterday evening in a restaurant in Birmingham - my nine-year-old daughter experienced her first taste of 'crime'. We left the table to get our food and the toy she had just 'won' from one of those toy-vending machines was stolen off our table. Not a violent crime by any stretch of the imagination, but she was pretty shaken up about it. It just really tickled me that we had to leave 'dangerous' South Africa and trek half way round the world for this experience.

Enough about Ifsec and our 'rude awakenings' for now, I will have a lot more constructive reports in the next issue of Hi-Tech Security Solutions, of that I am sure!

Be safe,

Lynne

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