Nicaragua News

We have been hearing about smart buildings for more than a decade, but the increasing profile of the Internet of Things (IoT) expands the possibilities for intelligent building systems and makes them even more attainable. Security is often among the “smart” functions of a building, and the capabilities of many physical security systems can contribute in new ways to building intelligence. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the impact of “smart buildings&...

When we contemplate where and how our food is made, cleanliness and hygiene are typically at the top of the list of necessities. And when it comes to production facilities, strict regulations and sanitation requirements are in place to ensure that the highest levels of food safety are met.  This white paper by Oncam explores the different aspects of food safety and defence in the production, manufacturing and catering environments. It also offers practical guidance to the types of food cer...

For fleet managers, the control and management of your fleet begins with control and management of the keys that start the vehicles. For some, this critical task is left to a very basic – and incredibly low-tech – solution, such as hooks mounted on a pegboard with a notebook for signing vehicle keys in and out. There are a number of shortcomings with this type of “system,” most notably that employees tend to ignore it altogether. With this type of honour system approach,...

Cloud computing has many benefits, including greater flexibility, infrastructure cost savings, and enhanced computing performance. However, the cloud presents new security challenges that organisations need to address. A failure to implement security controls and adhere to solid data governance practices could result in a breach. Preventing worst case scenarios Consider this scenario, a company begins their migration by getting excited about the possibilities the cloud can provide to their app...

Manchester-Boston Regional Airport opened to serve the state of New Hampshire and the surrounding New England community in 1927, a little over two decades after the Wright brother’s first powered flight. Located three miles south of central Manchester, the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport is the fourth largest passenger and third largest cargo airport in New England. The airport is also the busiest in the state, qualifying under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a “small...

What drives terrorism? It's a question asked by governments, individuals, militaries and businesses. Terrorist tactics and tradecraft constantly evolve to respond to external forces that enable, constrain and otherwise shape them. Tracking the influential forces that shape terrorism is crucial to understanding how attacks are conducted and placing an attack in context. But most importantly, understanding the drivers of terrorism helps security professionals anticipate terrorism trends so they...

From humble beginnings providing bus services along the New South Wales and Queensland coasts in Australia, Transit Systems has not only gone on to become one of Australia’s biggest public transport providers, but has also made significant inroads overseas, having purchased several bus routes from the First Group London, United Kingdom, in 2013. Employing over 2500 staff Australia-wide, Transit Systems operates from 26 depots and terminals, with a fleet of 500 buses and 40 ferries. When Q...

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...

Mirasys Video Management Solutions are being utilised in a number of transport projects which include ports, motorways, airports, trains and logistic centres. Each project needs a highly adaptive solution which adapts to changing requirements, technologies and regulations, and provides unlimited scalability and high reliability. Mirasys VMS increases efficiency The transportation sector provides a great example of how an intelligent video management system can increase the efficiency of activi...

German supermarket REWE Group's new full-range national warehouse covers 53,000 square metres and is situated in the north of Berlin. About 350 employees ensure that more than 355 REWE, nahkauf, Karstadt and Coop supermarkets — along with Hit self-service stores — are supplied with around 10,000 different items. The building is protected by a CLIQ® locking system which was planned and installed by the specialist security company Guett-Dern GmbH, based in Cologne. The flexible lo...

Every day, 150,000 parcels are transported by the French DPD group, which makes nearly 55 million parcels per year. E-commerce is growing the parcel business and, consequently, the transportation volume of parcel service and logistics companies. Online shopping would be unthinkable for the consumers without the speedy delivery of the ordered goods - therefore it is self-evident to keep track of shipments on their way to the consignee, in order to guarantee a correct delivery.­ DPD France vi...

There has been a significant shift in the methodology used by cyber criminals over the past couple of years, in particular. Whilst traditional ‘hacking’ and malware are still prevalent, there has been a boom in other types of attack, in particular Ransomware and Social Engineering. So, why has this happened? Most profitable types of cyber attack There is an old saying, “follow the money”, and nowhere is this more pertinent when considering cyber-crimes against UK busine...

The use of drones has increased dramatically in the last few years. Indeed, by 2021, the FAA says the number of small hobbyist drones in the U.S. will triple to about 3.55 million. With that growth, drone capabilities have increased while costs have decreased. For example, the DJI Phantom 4 can deliver a 2-pound payload to a target with 1.5m accuracy from 20 miles away for the less than $1000.00. This is an unprecedented capability accessible to anyone. This new technology has created an entirel...

They call it “critical” for a reason. The so-called “critical infrastructure” is composed of the basic services that citizens have come to depend on, and which are necessary to support society and ensure national stability. The term includes high-visibility segments such as airports, refineries, transportation, wastewater, nuclear reactors, electric utilities, pipelines, and more. Because these functions are so critical, the stakes of providing security are higher than fo...

If I asked you today how your video surveillance environment has changed over the past few years, how would you respond? I bet the answer could include the following options: An increase in the number of cameras The addition of more advanced technologies such as high-definition video, video analytics, 360-degree video devices, cloud-based services and more IT innovations. Demand for more video data to drive business, IT and security initiatives. Modern video surveillance The modernisati...

After a lot of studying and getting ready for what seems like an endless stream of exams, teachers and students alike will enjoy having some much-needed time off — whether it’s just for a weekend, a break during the school year or the long summer holidays. Schools that are left empty for a sustained amount of time obviously increases the risk of arson attacks, thefts and vandalism. Staff members at an establishment should therefore work through this checklist before they leave the c...

"Many disasters have occurred in the world, but few have also provided so much delight for posterity." There probably are no better words to describe Pompeii than Goethe’s during one of his trips to Italy – the area of Pompeii encompasses 440,000 square meters that include the archaeological excavations of the ancient Roman city submerged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, frozen in time by the sudden rain of ash and lava rock that preserved it for centuries. In 1997 UNESCO...

Products are the building blocks of systems and solutions. How those products are combined, and where the integration happens, is a variable in the physical security market. Before the advent of open systems, a single manufacturer typically combined his own products, using proprietary connections, into end-to-end solutions for customers. Open systems undermined that paradigm to some degree and made it possible for customers to pick and choose products from multiple manufacturers to be integrated...

Security expert Abloy UK has supplied South Staffs Water (SSW) with a bespoke PROTEC2 CLIQ® electromechanical security system for 91 of its operational sites. SSW supplies high quality drinking water to approximately 1.3m people and 35,000 commercial customers over 1,500 square km in the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, South Derbyshire, North Warwickshire and North Worcestershire areas. The SSW clean water sites include treatment works, reservoirs, pumping stations, boosters, and water...

The municipality of Haarlemmermeer wanted to replace the existing access control system and bring city hall security up to modern standards. They looked for a system that could manage all municipal buildings centrally. For this reason, the system had to be easily expandable. The access control system also had to include camera supervision of employees' sign-in and sign-out process. Existing access control infrastructure When implementing the new system, the municipality wanted...

The municipal council of Odense, Denmark’s third biggest city, uses Vanderbilt’s SPC Connect to help monitor and maintain public buildings such as schools, libraries, museums, gyms, housing, and government offices. Remote and instant access Due to the number of buildings under their authority, the municipality of Odense needed a security solution that would provide remote and instant access to deal with potential alarms from any location, at any time. For example, a janitor in cha...

When a news story of global interest begins to break, reporters across the world will scramble to find CCTV footage of the event, however isolated the incident may seem. Given the average of one camera installed for every twenty-nine people on the planet, it is perhaps unsurprising how often a persistent journalist, investigator or member of the public will actually be able to uncover footage. In fact, this number is estimated to be as high as one camera for every eleven people in mature market...

PSIMs have had a bad rap in the pro security industry for a multitude of reasons; ranging from suppliers overpromising on integration and control capabilities to complexity of implementation and use. However, there is a silver lining to this story. Today, advanced PSIM solutions are being successfully deployed in commercial applications with the ability to integrate previously disparate professional access, video, notification, building operations and more onto a unified control and management...

Video systems today offer more capabilities than ever. Consequently, the systems can be used in new ways. For a variety of reasons, however, many customers don’t take full advantage of the capabilities of their video systems and therefore are leaving value on the table. Education and training are tools to alleviate the situation, but the first step is to identify the new ways that video can be used. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How do customers under-utilise their vi...

Johnson Controls introduces its HD Video Solution, a new value-based solution that provides superior video quality while leveraging analogue infrastructure. The cost-effective Holis HD Tribrid Video Recorders support SD analogue cameras, Illustra Essentials IP cameras, and a brand-new line of HD cameras, allowing customers to achieve excellent video quality never before attained over coax. Holis HD video recorder features Available in 4, 8, and 16-channel models, the recorders feature intuitiv...

Adoption of the cloud is not slowing down. In fact, what’s happening is quite the opposite. According to IDC, worldwide spending on cloud computing is expected to reach $162 billion USD in 2020, growing at a compound annual rate of 19%. This isn’t surprising when you consider that more organisations are looking outside their own environment for solutions that will help them become more agile, maximise resources and save money. Yet, while this study and countless others show that mo...

Today ‘terrorism’ has become a word we use and hear every day. The goal of terrorism is a media product - information delivered to nearly every house in the world. So, the weapon of terrorism is information. Therefore, the way we defend and prevent terrorism must also be based on intelligent processing of information - and an early awareness of potential threats and effective preventive action may eliminate most attacks. Video analytics, automated surveillance and AI decision-making...

Public safety and the protection of property initiatives led the city of Mankato, Minnesota to deploy a city-wide IP-based video surveillance system. Founded in 1852, the city is the seat of Blue Earth County. It encompasses 18.26 square miles of land and water, and supports a population of about 41,000 (2015 US census estimate). Home to a variety of natural landmarks and higher educational institutes, Mankato provides a dynamic lifestyle for its citizens all year round. Surveillance for key co...

Companies in fast-moving industries tend to want half or more of their revenue to come from products released in the last three or so years. The logical extension of that philosophy is the demise of product "cash cows" that remain in a company's portfolio for many years. Where better to witness the shortening life cycles of technology products than in the smart phone market, where most of us buy into the hype of the "latest and greatest?" But does acceleration of new product introductions transl...

Cybersecurity is a growing concern for manufacturers of life safety and security products, and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) wants to help solve the problem. Specifically, UL seeks to work with manufacturers to up their game on cybersecurity and to certify compliance to a minimum level of cybersecurity “hygiene.” UL cybersecurity certification UL is a familiar brand in consumer goods and in the security and life safety markets. UL certification is sought by manufacturers in a ran...