Farah Benis
Editor
Farah Benis F.ISRM is a security and risk consultant with extensive experience across physical security, risk management, and advocacy. She has worked in high-risk environments in remote site operations, mining, and oil & gas, as well as hospitality and corporate risk and has partnered with organisations on workplace violence prevention and crisis response.
Farah is a Fellow of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management (ISRM) and serves on the board of ASIS UK and IFPO UK. She was a co-founder of Running on Empty, a security mental health initiative, and conducts workshops in schools on personal safety, consent, and community awareness.
Farah is a dedicated advocate for the prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG), working across policy, education, and frontline support. She has led research on workplace harassment, campaigns on women's safety, and collaborates with organisations to implement effective prevention strategies. Her work focuses on equipping individuals and institutions with the tools to create safer environments, while challenging systemic barriers to change.
In addition to her security work, Farah writes and curates thought leadership content on industry trends, risk intelligence, and violence prevention. She founded The Security Edit as a platform for expert insights and practical discussions that cut through the noise of the corporate sell.
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In this episode of The Bookshelf Edit, Farah explores Scaling Pyramids: Leadership Lessons from a Mid-Level Bureaucrat by Christopher Stitt. She breaks down the book’s core themes — including leading from the middle of organisations, influence without authority, reputation as a leadership asset, and why endurance often matters more than brilliance.
Sunday 08/02/2026
Covering the UK’s assumption of the UN Security Council presidency, shifts in US arms transfer policy, the EU’s expanded cybersecurity proposals, defence realignments across Asia, rising instability in the Sahel and Pakistan, and broader geopolitical moves reshaping security, supply chains, and strategic dependence.
Sunday 01/02/2026
Covering the UK’s China reset, U.S. homeland security funding disruption, Iran and regional force posture, ongoing insurgency impacts in Africa, Russia–Ukraine infrastructure targeting, and the latest cyber risk assessments highlighting geopolitics as a primary driver of digital threat.
Sunday 25/01/2026
This week gave us the "Carney Doctrine" at Davos, the lethal escalation of ICE tactics in Minneapolis, and the aviation lockdown in the Middle East. The global risk landscape is shifting in real-time. From the industrialisation of intelligence to the erosion of digital sovereignty, the architecture of power is being rewritten.
Sunday 18/01/2026
In a week defined by the "Boardroom State" in Gaza, the military standoff in Greenland, and Museveni’s "kill-switch" victory in Uganda, the global risk landscape is shifting in real-time. We provide a pragmatic analysis of the top stories currently rewriting the security playbook for 2026.
In this episode of The Bookshelf Edit, Farah explores It’s Not in the Manual: Real-World Leadership for Security and Risk Professionals by Michael Gips. She unpacks the book’s core themes - including leadership without clear rules, managing risk rather than “solving” it, and how leaders operate when frameworks fall short - and explains why these insights matter for today’s security and risk professionals.
Sunday 11/01/2026
In a week defined by the U.S. extraction of Maduro, the formalisation of China’s "Electrostate" mandates, and the continued erosion of order in the West Bank and Iran, the global risk landscape is shifting in real-time. We provide a pragmatic analysis of the top stories currently rewriting the security playbook for 2026.
In the kind of blunder that will be dissected in cybersecurity and intelligence training for years to come, a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal - containing the sitting U.S. Defence Secretary, Vice President, and senior officials - accidentally included a journalist. That alone would be a headline. But what happened inside that chat over the next three days was nothing short of a masterclass in how not to conduct national security.
Over one million VAWG-related crimes were recorded in the UK during 2022/23, accounting for 20% of all police-recorded crime. At least 1 in every 12 women in the UK will be a victim of violence this year alone - and the true number is expected to be much higher due to underreporting.* The internet was meant to be a space for connection, learning, and progress. Instead, it has become a recruitment ground for extremism, radicalisation, and targeted hatred - and women are paying the price.
In this episode of The Bookshelf Edit, Farah Benis explores Strategic Risk and Crisis Management: A Handbook for Modelling and Managing Complex Risks by Dr. David Rubens. She breaks down the key takeaways—covering crisis response failures, leadership under pressure, and how security professionals can better prepare for complex risks.
It’s no secret that people are under more pressure than ever. The cost of living is rising, workloads are heavier, and world events are increasingly distressing. Employees aren’t walking into work each day as blank slates, they’re bringing the weight of their personal lives, financial stress, and the wider world with them. And yet, too many employers still operate under the assumption that resilience is an individual responsibility rather than an organisational priority.
The Global Risks Report 2025 paints a stark picture of a world facing rising geopolitical tensions, economic fractures, and worsening environmental crises. Armed conflict, misinformation, and extreme weather events are pressing concerns, while cyber threats, resource shortages, and ecosystem decline are expected to intensify. With global cooperation weakening and national security concerns taking priority, businesses and governments must rethink how they manage risk.