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Welcome to the watch floor. I'm Sarah Adams. It's that time of the year again, Super Bowl Sunday. We actually this time have a repeat of 2015, right? We have the Patriots and the Seahawks. I mean, it's not the packers, but maybe I'll watch. I mean, this is probably one of the most watched events in the entire world. What everyone fails to realize is the super bowl isn't just a game. It gets transformed into an entire temporary city. For almost like 10 days, people flooded into a bunch of different events going on. Hotels fill up, we have road closures. Law enforcement surges in criminal networks kind of start finding their groove. Cyber actors think, hey, how am I going to take advantage of this chaos? And then, of course, overnight, the day after the game, poof, it all disappears. But here's what I think is important and matters. Of course, the majority of us aren't going to super bowl or even super bowl events this weekend that have those type of crowds. But we are going to go to parades and festivals and maybe college games. And it's starting to become that time of the year again. Potentially political rallies. We will be at these large events. So what I want to do today is I want to talk about the super bowl, but through a lens to where we just discuss some of the issues and patterns that occur around the Super Bowl. But of course, all of these could occur in any large event. And then we can think of different ways to stay safe when we're in large events like this. And when you understand those patterns, you do put yourself in a better situation. The largest event I've probably been to was the London Olympics back in 2012. At the time, 11 million people came to London for this event. I mean, much larger than the super bowl, which gets usually like 100 to 150,000 people flooding in each year. Well, as you can imagine, this was the largest security operation in the city besides probably the last World War. I mean, so it's a huge undertaking, events like this. But you learn a lot when you see things occur at that scale. And there's so many different lessons we can take from it. So here's the most important thing to understand. When a city hosts a Super bowl, it's not just hosting the game. It's hosting what is best to call, like, a population surge. Okay, so let's think of it this way. Levi's Stadium holds what, like 68,000 people now, then you have two to three times as many coming to the city to enjoy the outside activities. And remember, in this city, for example, let's just say for the long weekend, you also have the normal population who aren't out late every night and those type of things. So there's just also, like, a different cadence and like a different tone at the time. Cities run on predictable schedules based on population size. Well, when you drop in another city on top of your city, you can't assume everything to go perfectly smooth, et cetera. And that's a little bit more of where some of the threat is. So don't think of a threat to the super bowl as exactly being in the stadium. Think of all these kind of concentric circles that are occurring behind it. So think of like the hotel lobby at night, a crowded sports bar in the evening, different transit platforms, you know, as you have to travel around, you know, even just those parking garages, any kind of dimly lit area or somewhere you have to go to. And from when you're going between, like, your hotel and the stadium, because it's usually not right next to each other. And then also just think of, like, if you're doing rideshare, I mean, you obviously have to make sure you know who your driver is. There's a lot of crimes happening around rideshares now. There's even kind of like programs where one rider can hijack another one. So again, you're in this crowded situation, and you really need to be aware of these different threats so you can put yourself in a better place. When we think of, like, the super bowl, lots of times law enforcement says, oh, the normal crimes, as you can imagine, are pickpocketing, phone theft, and then the things that kind of cascade from them. So, like, if you get a phone, you get access to someone's emails, their banking information, like potentially their credentials, those type of things are really what they look at when they're looking at normal crimes surrounding a Super Bowl. And we're going to talk through some of that, but then just some of the larger things involving this. So even when we say pickpocket, it's not exactly just this random person pickpocketing you. There are pickpocketing rings. So one person might grab your item. It could be the fifth person within two minutes. So you have to think of it in that way. This is more organized. When these people are stealing your phones, they have a specific purpose or something, and they want to target in that phone. And if your phone's locked, it makes it obviously very difficult for them to do it. They might just throw it away and go try to get another phone they that they can access easily. So the things you can do to protect yourself make it harder for them. And another thing that's just really common is a lot of ticket scams, but they're done in very simple ways. The easiest one is you just scan a QR code. So there might be QR codes all over. And great ticket deals here don't scan those. It's just if it looks like fraud, it's fraud. And another thing a lot of people make a mistake about, like, let's say you go into the stadium or even you're walking some of these outside zones and you'll see stadium WI fi or free NFL wifi. All these type of things aren't provided by the NFL or the stadium. These are scam wifi sites mostly. And so when you get on them, you're giving them access to your traffic, they might get your logins on your account. We've had people sign into their work emails on these free WI fi's and as you can imagine, it turned into cyber intrusion events against their companies. You know, another thing people forget a lot about is phishing. So it's done so simply around the super bowl, but this can be done in any event. Now you bought tickets, you got hotel reservations, maybe you even got some sort of car rental and then you booked an airline flight. Okay, so let's just say we have those four things going on. Well, you'll get emails or even text messages saying, hey, get a free seat upgrade on your flight, or oh, there's an issue with your tickets, or oh, you, your room check in got changed. You can check in early. Like these type of things that make you want to click onto it and look at it, but it's not from those companies, it's a phishing attempt. So anytime you get something like that, and it doesn't matter if it's around the super bowl or not, just go to the actual app. So if your flight was on United and it was a free seat upgrade, well, go to your United app, don't click the text you got and see is that in there? Was that something offered to you? And you know, it's the simplest way to protect yourself when we're in these environments. As you can imagine, so much is going on. The last thing we're worried about is am I going to get a random phishing attempt as a text on my phone, as I'm like getting through the crowd, you know, trying to get in line to buy a beer, et cetera. But unfortunately we live in a world now where we have to think of that because these threat actors are really going after us when our guard is down, when we're distracted by other things. And of course that's so easy when we're in large crowds. Another thing we really have to be honest about is it is wonderful to share. You're at this event to get pictures up online, but that causes its own issues. One is, of course you alert people you're at that location, so it might make them target you. It could also set up so someone could bump into you later and act like they didn't even know you were there. It also is telling people back home that you're not at your place of residence. Theft rings can use that information to rob your home when you're far away. Remember, a lot of targeting prior to crimes occurs online and they look for these easy opportunities to do something. And so you always have to keep that in mind. You know, the best you can delay a post 24, 48 hours, it just puts you in a better position. It doesn't make you time and place predictable. And why make yourself an easy target when you don't need to be? Now, another thing that I want to talk about is there's then kind of the layer that is just criminal activity that occurs around a Super Bowl. So we have things like disorderly conduct, fights maybe at the game, vandalism sometimes. The vandalism, fortunately, is against police or federal officers, vehicles who are supporting it, assaults on the police, or even just any kind of security helping around the game. There's unfortunately firearms incidents, especially in those activities around the stadium that are also already full of large crowds. But you don't have to go in to the stadium through a metal detector. Right? So there's more of an opportunity. There will be weapons in those situations. And then we love these field invasions. The short, stocky bald man is streaking across the field. My God, George. Now check that. He's not streaking. He's wearing a flesh toned body stocking. Apparently he's a bit bashful. Hey, body suit man. What's up? Everybody wants to see the streaker, but of course these can be really serious and you have to be careful about who it is. I mean, remember during the New Orleans halftime show, you know, we had someone come out and they like protest for Gaza. Well, you obviously have to look at that as a security breach. It is. I told you, there's things occurring around the super bowl at the same time, but you also have to take a step back. And then there's events that occur after the Super Bowl. Well, Sometimes those events are good and sometimes those are bad. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. So we've had, of course, celebrations in Philadelphia being a great example, you know, last year, and, you know, it really led to a lot of chaos. We've had shootings at, at super bowl parades, right? Remember the one in Kansas City the year before that? We had post game violence in Oakland that was really concerning way back in 2003. So even in the aftermath, you might get wrapped up into some of these celebrations that could really turn into riots. There's been vandalization of police cars, fires started, et cetera. So. So it's just another threat environment you have to think through regarding the whole situation. Because it is a lot of fun to be involved in all these activities, but be aware that sometimes they do spiral out of control and there just sometimes are bad actors who want to cause this chaos and these events. Now, one part we should talk about is we hear this a lot. And of course, course it is the fact that there's human trafficking issues regarding the Super Bowl. And it's really just one of those things. As you can imagine, when you bring in large crowds, you also bring in demand criminals. No matter what industry they're in, they want to go to where the demand is, right? And of course, that is a Super bowl or it could be conferences or any large event like this. Now, when it comes to, to trafficking, really, you're not participating in any way. So it's more one of those things, hey, let's be aware, let's report if anything looks suspicious and let's be kind of a part of the solution in this instead of just ignoring that the problem's occurring. Cause a lot of people do like to ignore this is occurring. I lived in Orlando previously and in the airport. There, their airport authority literally refused to put those little signs in the bathroom that say, hey, if you're a victim of human trafficking, call this number. Because they're like, oh, we don't want Orlando to feel unsafe, even though Orlando has a massive human trafficking problem. So we don't want to paint over these problems or ignore them. Let's just be honest that they exist. And if you have opportunity to do something about it, do it. So back in 2021, I volunteered during the super bowl that occurred in Tampa. And so what we did is I worked with an organization called In Our Backyard, and we had these Missing Children booklets. So for about a week prior to the super bowl, we went to local businesses that maybe a trafficker or A victim might visit or just even a missing child could be seen at. So it would be like a gas station, nail and hair salons, etc. And we handed out these booklets. So the interesting thing, about seven to 10 days after we got the final count of what happened with our booklet, our booklets had 36 missing children in it at the end of the super bowl because a lot of people saw this and there's a lot of awareness. 14 of those missing children were no longer missing. That's a really great thing. I think last year in the Super Bowl, 12 were found. So it's just there is all these great initiatives to get involved in around these events to also help against some of these crimes. And so it's just something important to talk about. Now. The other thing is it doesn't get to the level of crime usually, but it is. There's a lot of scams in these situations, especially if we're talking about like being at the bars at night. You need to be very careful. There's unfortunately things. And this happens actually a lot against men in this situation. You know, there's drugging, getting a lot of alcohol into someone, and a lot of this is to. You can maybe like steal their credit card or do those type of things. You know, it is something that's occurring and it's just important. So people are aware of it and they think about it, you know, when you're getting some undue attention. You know, we used to joke when I was in the spy world, right? If you're not a 10 in Washington, D.C. you're definitely not a 10 in Madrid, Spain. So if you're not a 10 back home in Ohio, I can tell you for sure you are not a 10 in California. And if you actually have that mindset and you think through it, you're really going to make a lot less mistakes when someone's giving you extra attention. And it's really unclear why because remember, some of those are also large targeting networks of criminals too. So just be aware of it. Don't get separated from your friends. Make sure you know, your wallet is, your phone is, don't leave stuff down, et cetera. Just don't make yourself a victim. One key piece I want to talk about that isn't usually an issue, but we need to view it as a potential issue. This year is when we have a big event like the Super Bowl. I said early on, law enforcement surges. Well, of course, a layer of that law enforcement is federal law enforcement. So we'll have the DHS ICE and Border Patrol support these operations. Well, when that came out this year was, I guess, a big surprise to people that ICE helps at the Super Bowl. So because of the climate we're in and everybody's trying to play politics with immigration, everyone was all in this uproar, like, oh, well, we shouldn't go to the super bowl. Not that they're going anyway, because ICE is going to be there. And as you can imagine, then a lot of these anti ICE movements, some of these immigration advocacy groups, some of these anarchists and agitators are like, well, then we'll protest and go cause problems at the Super Bowl. So we have seen kind of DHS take a step back and say, well, maybe we won't deploy ICE to this situation. First off, if we have federal law enforcement to bring to bear to keep a situation safe, it's frustrating that the numbers are going to go down. But we also have other problems around this. So let's say ICE doesn't even come. Well, we already have these agitators who want to cause a problem. If you've seen it hasn't always had to be ice. Just recently there was like several federal air marshals having lunch and these protesters like stormed in the restaurant and tried to get him kicked out. It's getting to where they just want to dox law enforcement and federal law enforcement and cause these disturbances in these situations. So we have to assume, you know, this likely can occur during the super bowl and it can just be another threat layer. A new digital billboard at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco is evoking mixed reactions. It made me sick to my stomach. It's an ad that shows support for ice. They have a job to do, too. That's it. You know, I don't have a problem with them. The billboard reads Defensive Player of the Year, ice, a group that calls the itself American Sovereignty. And again, when you have something, an event this big, it brings in all the major news outlets from all around the world. So if you cause a disturbance, even if it's just the funny naked guy running across the field, you're going to get all the media attention. So unfortunately, some of these bad actors know, hey, I'll get pressed for this. I'll get attention for this. This help might help boost my cause and that might lead to other problems. So we just have to keep that in mind. We have seen these issues countless times in the last year and these movements are going to keep trying to take advantage of these situations. Now, of course, one of the things I want to talk about is terrorism. People talk a lot like, oh, the biggest threat around the super bowl is a terrorist attack. And, I mean, that's just not the case. I mean, we've actually never even seen kind of a coordinated, successful attack on the super bowl, because first off, there's all these layers of security. What we normally see is more threats. We see groups kind of put out to, like, lone wolves. Hey, if you want to try to do an attack, something simple like drive a car into the crowd, put up a drone and cause some controversy, do that. So there's always at least inspired people that know, hey, super bowl is a great target. Obviously, there's a lot of people there, time and place, predictable, all those type of things. So we don't want to discredit terrorism as a threat vector. Just know, obviously, that is kind of the top tier. Of course, law enforcement has prepared for that, set up the situation where they can circumvent that. They've been collecting on any kind of threats, mentioning the super bowl in so many months leading up to that, et cetera. So we have kind of this layered security in these defenses, which really help put at least a big chunk of the terrorist threat piece of this to bay. But again, even though there is no specific plotting against the super bowl, of course, it's always something that we need to focus on because it is something that really has become symbolic of America and America's favorite pastime, et cetera. So just think of it that way more. Maybe a lone actor threat. We have maybe some of this domestic terrorism that could come to bay. People who are just radicalized, no matter what. The thing is, it doesn't have to be Islamist radicalization. There's so many ways it can be radicalized now, especially with just all these rifts politically on the left and right side of the aisle in this country. When we talk about the super bowl, we want you to at least be aware of all the things going on. But at the end of the day, this is America. We want you to get out there, we want you to enjoy the event, enjoy the activities, be smart, be safe. Always think of being prepared. So if something does happen, even if something small like protesters doing something foolish, you can react quickly and be smart and keep yourself safe. This is the watch floor. Thanks for tuning in.