Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) News

The PSIA announced that two of its members actively supporting the PKOC specification will be speaking at the CONSULT 2024 Symposium. Since its inception, eight years ago, CONSULT has emerged as one of the premier and most unique events in the security industry. The symposium fills a largely unmet need in the security industry for manufacturers and consultants to interact with each other, to better understand security technologies, trends, and techniques as they impact security consultants...

The PSIA had another impressive and compelling demonstration of its PKOC spec at GSX 2024. Some of the major lock and physical access control (PACS) vendors were able to see PKOC in action, with commercially available readers, cards, and apps all relying on the open specification, showing seamless interoperability.  PKOC product lines “It was gratifying to see all of the hard work of the PKOC technical committee come together at the demonstration at GSX 2024,” said David Bunz...

Taglio has announced the commercial availability of its first PKOC compatible card, the P1190-DF1. This card implements the PKOC NFC specification for Public Key cryptography at the door combined with a Mifare® DESFire® credential. The Taglio cards will provide support for PKOC on its PIVKey and Taglio PIV Card products combining PKOC physical access with the Taglio Logical access solutions. Taglio cards will be demonstrated at the JCI stand (Booth 18033) in conjunction with readers and...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) announced it has approved the Public Key Open Credential (PKOC) NFC Card Specification-Version 1.1. The PSIA has been working with a broad group of industry pioneers in the card, reader, and access control industries to come up with this specification, which is likely to have a significant influence on the future of secure credentials.  Simple with asymmetric encryption Mohammad Soleimani, the Chief Innovation Officer of Kastle Syste...

Taglio, the globally renowned independent provider of smart card technologies, has announced that it has joined the PSIA. The company, based in Austin, Texas, was established in 2012, and its products and services have been integrated with many millions of smart cards, devices, and mobile phones worldwide. Physical access “Working with our OEM partners, Taglio’s products are deployed in identity and logical access projects, both large and small,” said GW Habraken, Co-Founder...

ELATEC, INID, Kastle Systems, JCI, Last Lock, rf IDEAS, SAFR Scan (RealNetworks), and Sentry Enterprises were each part of an exciting demonstration at the JCI Innovation Room at GSX 2023.  A large number of consultants, integrators, and end users were awed by the simplicity, yet effective access security that PKOC was able to demonstrate. In addition to hardware and cards, there were multiple apps capable of accessing the various devices. Author's quote David Bunzel, PSIA Executive Dire...

PKOC stands for Public Key Open Credential. It is a new standard that will meet a 30-year industry challenge and strip away much of the complexity and cost involved in protecting and administering credentials for access control. It could also accelerate the transition from cards to mobile access control. PKOC is a standards-based mobile credential that is essentially free, vendor-agnostic, and interoperable across multiple devices and systems. It is a highly secure access credential that can l...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) announces it has approved the Secure Credential Interoperability (SCI) 1.0 specification. The PSIA has been working with a broad group of industry pioneers in the access control industry to come up with this specification, which is likely to have a significant influence on the future of secure mobile credentials. Mohammad Soleimani, the Chief Technology Officer of Kastle Systems and the Chairman of the SCI Work Group, introduced this concep...

Johnson Controls, the globally renowned company in smart, healthy and sustainable building solutions, has introduced the PLAI Adapter for the Tyco Software House’s CCURE 9000 security and event management system, which connects to the PLAI Agent, for physical access control system compatibility. PLAI Adapter This open standards approach enables enterprises to easily manage personnel identity and physical access, across disparate physical access control platforms and other identity-based...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) has announced its Secure Credential Interoperability (SCI) initiative and a working group to advance its development.  “The physical access control industry has demonstrated a need for a universally compatible secure credential and we believe that we have found a simple, yet elegant solution to address this with SCI,” said Mohammad Soleimani, CTO of Kastle Systems and Chairman of the SCI Work Group.  SCI Work Group M...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) has announced that it has elected Jason Ouellette, as its Chairman and Ewa Pigna, the Chief Technology Officer for LenelS2, a part of Carrier Global Corporation, as its Vice Chairman. Standards-based digital data In addition, Peter Boriskin, the Chief Technology Officer for ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Americas, will continue in his role as the organisation’s Treasurer. The PSIA membership develops specifications for enabling standar...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) announced it has elected Jason Ouellette, as its Chairman and Ewa Pigna, the Chief Technology Officer for LenelS2, a part of Carrier Global Corporation, as its Vice Chairman.  In addition, Peter Boriskin, the Chief Technology Officer for ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Americas, will continue in his role as the organization’s treasurer. The PSIA membership develops specifications for enabling standards-based sharing of digital data...

In 2019, the PSIA decided to have one of the most compelling demonstrations for its PLAI specification at ISC West 2020. It would rely on a cloud-based agent, which would allow attendees to badge and authenticate at various vendor’s stands who had implemented the spec. In 2020, technical development was progressing well and eight vendors were set to have PLAI implemented in devices and systems at their various booths and suites in Las Vegas. Of course, ISC West was cancelled, but the grou...

Recognising that travel will be limited for most industry professionals for the coming months, the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) has decided to bring the PLAI Experience to people. On May 20, the PSIA will host a Virtual PLAI Experience that will demonstrate the value of its Physical Logical Access Interoperability (PLAI) specification to the market. Cloud-based PLAI agent Eight partner companies in access control and biometrics will showcase a cloud-based PLAI agent conne...

On March 18, 2020, the exhibit floor at ISC West will host a virtual demonstration of PLAI, the emerging industry specification for enhanced identity management. Together with eight partners in access control and biometrics, the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) has organised an in-person experience for participants relying on a single trusted source. Biometrics and access control Attendees will receive an access card to be used at their choice of seven sites and can experienc...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) was founded in 2008 with a goal of creating ‘plug-and-play interoperability’ among physical security devices, systems and services. Since then, the organisation’s mission has both expanded to include logical security and focused more narrowly on identity, a critical aspect of security today. In recent years, PSIA has concentrated on its PLAI (Physical Logical Access Interoperability) specification, which provides a means t...

The PSIA will show continued momentum for its Physical Logical Access interoperability (PLAI) spec at ISC West 2019. “In past demos we were able to show some exchange of records between PACS systems, but this year we will have five vendors, and demonstrate existing employee identity data sets, which can be passed to other systems in the security environment beyond having just a clean start,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. Physical security systems Biometrics, a...

The PSIA will show continued momentum for its Physical Logical Access Interoperability (PLAI) spec at ISC West 2019. “In past demos we were able to show some exchange of records between PACS systems, but this year we will have six vendors, and demonstrate existing employee identity data sets, which can be passed to other systems in the security environment beyond having just a clean start,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. Commercial PLAI agent One of the critical...

AMAG Technology’s Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Stuart Tucker, joined the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance Board of Directors. The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) is a global consortium of physical security product companies and system integrators. These companies and individuals are focused on promoting interoperability of IP-enabled security devices and systems across the security ecosystem and beyond. Adoption of PLAI standard The PSIA develops...

A critical issue for security officers today is how to make sure temporary or permanent employees are removed from the employee directory system when they are no longer working for the company. This situation arises especially in large enterprises, which may have different Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) supporting different offices or company operations. It is not uncommon for a company to make an acquisition and have two or more incompatible PACS systems. The simple way to address this...

The PSIA has announced an enhanced set of test tools for the PLAI specification. The driver behind updating the tool is to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for vendors to adopt the standards. “Effective test tools are critical for a specification to achieve true interoperability,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. “We recognised that as the PLAI specification has evolved we needed to advance our tools to complement it.” Ensuring specification co...

A commercial version of the PLAI Agent will be demonstrated by the PSIA at ISC West 2018 in Las Vegas. Johnson Controls (Software House), Kastle Systems, and Princeton Identity will show the interoperability and exchange of identity information between disparate systems. “Having a commercial PLAI Agent, available to any company, is an important milestone for PLAI,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. “It will enable Physical Access Control System (PACS) vendors t...

The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) has announced it has elected Mike Mathes, Executive Vice President of Convergint Technologies, as its Chairman, and Jason Ouellette, Product General Manager–Access Control for Johnson Controls, as its Vice Chairman. The PSIA membership develops specifications for enabling standards-based sharing of digital data and intelligence throughout the physical security and enterprise ecosystems. “Mike and Jason bring us strong technology...

Industry standards make it possible for systems and technologies to connect and work together. Standards enable today’s integrated systems. But does adherence to standards stifle innovation? Does the necessity to interface using an industry-wide standard slow down the implementation of newer (and possibly not standards-compliant) capabilities? Or do standards eliminate extraneous variables, empower more integration and encourage greater innovation? We asked this week’s Expert Panel R...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) describes standards as guidelines or characteristics for activities or for their results, aimed at achieving the optimum degree of order. They might include product standards, test methods, codes of practice, guideline standards, and management systems standards. In the security marketplace, there are many standards currently used, including those from organisations such as ONVIF, PSIA and ASIS International. Might the value of standardisa...

Security solutions should be about integration not isolation. Many organisations are considering their existing processes and systems and looking at how to leverage further value. Security is part of that focus and is a central component in the move towards a more integrated approach, which results in significant benefits. Gert Rohrmann, Technical Manager for the solutions division of Siemens Building Technologies UK, examines how by drawing data from a number of different sources...

Both companies have been active in the development of PLAI and have seen market demand for its features Physical Access Control System (PACS) vendors Lenel (UTC) and Software House (Tyco Security Products) have made a strong endorsement for the PSIA's Physical Logical Access Interoperability (PLAI) specification, by including it as a native implementation in their OnGuard and C•CURE products, respectively. OnGuard PLAI adapter Each of these companies has been activ...

Open systems are great at providing freedom for end user customers. But does the term “open system” mean the same thing throughout the industry? In the bad old days before the introduction and broad acceptance of open systems, security vendors produced proprietary systems that used only their own hardware and software. This locked in a customer to a specific vendor’s product line, and if another vendor offered a better product, the only way to get it was to switch to that vendo...

The PSIA will demonstrate a new application for its PLAI profile, providing critical infrastructure protection The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) will demonstrate two new use cases at ASIS 2016, addressing cybersecurity and building automation. Cyber-attacks, one of the issues currently challenging security professionals, are getting significant attention in the industry. The PSIA will demonstrate an exciting new application for its Physical Logical Access...

Grundig Security's new Professional Line, 16- and 32-channel embedded NVRs, include an exceptional range of high-end features and storage options. The NVRs support Full HD cameras of up to 6MP, with an aggregate recording speed of up to 200 Mbps. Four SATA HDD slots are available for storage. Network-attached storage (NAS) and eSATA devices can be added to increase storage or offer back up options. Failover functionality allows dual, redundant NVR set-up for high-security applications. If the p...