Roger Parkes is a physical security specialist employed by GGS-AU Pty Ltd, a consulting and testing company in Australia specializing in the gambling industry.
Roger Parkes is a physical security specialist employed by GGS-AU Pty Ltd, a consulting and testing company in Australia specializing in the gambling industry. GGS evaluates and compliance tests of Internet Gambling operations. Roger has been with the company for 16 months after having worked for regulators and operators in the gambling industry. ‘I spent 15 years with the New Zealand government, in the gaming field, specializing in investigative, monitoring and inspection functions. I have a very strong operational background having worked as a Gaming and Censorship Inspector in the field and then as Senior Casino Inspector at the Sky City Casino in Auckland, one of the largest in Australasia. At Sky City I was responsible for the both the inspectorate surveillance and security operations as well as the monitoring of the Sky City operations."<br>
While with the New Zealand Government Roger trained departmentally and with the Police in investigation and criminal intelligence and has developed an extensive background in criminal investigations and processes. He also spent time with the New Zealand Tax Department as an auditor and hence has financial investigation knowledge.
Roger is qualified as a CPP with ASIS and is a member of the New South Wales chapter, plus the UK-based Institute of Security Management and IPSA (International Professional Security Association). He says: ‘I left the government to work overseas at a casino in Cairo where I was in charge of the security and surveillance departments, and also took over those responsibilities for another of the company’s casinos in Alexandria. I then went to Greece and was Surveillance Manager for a casino in Rhodes. From there, I went back to New Zealand until I was offered the opportunity to go to Sydney and work in the internet casino business. Working for GGS has allowed me to use my security background in my work as project manager and senior consultant. When we evaluate internet operations on behalf of government regulators a large part of what we do is examine and determine security compliance. I think everyone is aware of the security issues associated with e-business; what a lot of people in business don’t consider is how physical and logical security are inter-related. There is no point in having a the latest firewall costing US$2 million if someone can walk in the back door, pick it up and leave with it. Consequently we do a lot of work in this area ensuring all aspects of an operation are as secure as they can be. We have very skilled internet security experts in house that I work with to ensure we have a holistic risk based approach to security.’ Another aspect of this security work is conducting ‘Tiger Team attacks’ where Roger and a team of computer and IT security experts try to break in to the gaming site, both physically into the premises and remotely through the computer systems to access the main server: ‘We do this on behalf of clients to evaluate their security systems and demonstrate their vulnerability. It’s surprising how many organisations do not recognise just how susceptible they are to attacks through the internet and the loss it can cause to their business and reputation.’
With the expansion of internet gambling, GGS now has a presence in South Africa, New Zealand, the US and the UK. For details e-mail Roger at [email protected].
