Fredrick Foster: I was a police officer before I migrated into the world of private security. Back in the day, we used to respond to bomb threats. Law enforcement agencies don't typically do that anymore. There are a variety of liability reasons for that and also couple of practical ones, but we used to regularly do bomb searches.

For the last 20 years, I've worked as a contract security manager and have been helping clients deal with these types of problems. I teach response tactics to client emergency-response teams and security managers.

Also see A for handling a bomb threat in CSOonline's Security tools and resource center

Over 98 percent of all bomb threats are false—and very few actual bomb incidents, where someone successfully plants an explosive device, are preceded by threats. But with both, a small business can be targeted as much as a giant corporation, or a school system, or a church or synagogue.

What it's like to...