Biometric Security - Security beat

More good news for exhibitors on the second day of the Global Security Exchange (GSX) in Las Vegas. Brisk attendance continued early in the day, and then slowed somewhat in the afternoon, but most comments from exhibitors were positive. Exhibitors such as Lenel were “thrilled” with the show, and noticed the steady, good traffic and lots of sales leads. Lenel’s position at the front of the hall probably helped. New developments in mobile credentialing are a big trend at GSX, an...

The Global Security Exchange (GSX) seems smaller this year, which is not surprising given the absence on the show floor of several big companies such as Hikvision and ASSA ABLOY (although their subsidiary HID Global has a big booth). A trend affecting the number of companies exhibiting at GSX 2018, and other trade shows, is industry consolidation, which is impacting the show even beyond the fewer exhibitors this year in Las Vegas. GSX is the new branding for the trade show formerly kno...

ISC West, like any large trade show, can be daunting for attendees. At big shows, there can be hundreds of physical security manufacturers and dealers vying for your attention. As the scope of physical security expands from video surveillance and access control to include smart building integrations, cyber security and the Internet of Things (IoT), there is an increasing amount of information to take in from education sessions and panels. With ISC West approaching April 9-12 in Las Vegas, we pr...

Newly modernised halls with lots of daylight will house hundreds of exhibitions and conference events at the upcoming Security Essen 2018 at Messe Essen, Germany. A new layout and hall numbering system will be unfamiliar to past attendees but promises to simplify the experience as it brings together attendees and exhibitors. European physical security market Security Essen is an international trade fair, but the emphasis is more on German, Austrian and Swiss companies. In all, Security Essen w...

Several recent terrorist and mass violence attacks have been directed at soft targets, or relatively unprotected locations where people gather such as outside a music venue or in the unscreened passenger areas at airports. Attacks in public areas have led to the development of new security technologies aimed at protecting soft targets. One company addressing the challenges is Evolv Technology and its Edge automated high-speed personnel screening solution. The system integrates walkthrough fire...

Activity slowed on the last day of ISC West in Las Vegas, but there was plenty of momentum remaining and plenty more to see. In the end, Reed Exhibitions declared 2018 the biggest and most successful year to date for the show. There were an additional 4,000 square feet of exhibit space compared to last year and a 6 percent growth in overall attendance, according to Reed.  The cloud, biometrics, deep learning and other technologies were among the big topics at the show, and even smaller exh...

Open architecture in physical access control is built around Mercury Security’s access control panels, the de facto standard embraced by more than two dozen access control original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Mercury and several of its OEMs teamed up March 3-4 to present MercTech4, a conference in Miami aimed at updating security consultants about the latest developments related to the Mercury platform. MercTech4 highlighted a new generation of access control products, which are incre...

Security solutions today do more than merely observe and prevent criminal activity. Systems are increasingly tasked with making sense of the world around us. At Intersec 2018, which took place 21st - 23rd January in Dubai, manufacturers set out to show how predictive analytics and artificial intelligence are already being used in real world applications: predicting criminal behaviour, managing traffic, and streamlining smart city operations. Dubai smart city initiatives Dubai is a particu...

There’s a new big player – and familiar household name – coming into the security marketplace with the announcement of Motorola’s intent to acquire Canadian video manufacturer Avigilon Corporation, provider of video surveillance and analytics. Motorola Solutions points to an “avalanche of video in public and private sectors” as a motivation for the acquisition.   Motorola Solutions’ dominance in the public safety market – where t...

Working together to develop an intelligent body-worn camera for public safety users, Motorola Solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) company Neurala are demonstrating how AI can be added to everyday devices such as smart phones using existing hardware platforms.  AI software, working at the “edge,” provides the capability to add AI functionality to existing cameras, such as Motorola’s Si500 body-worn camera. An agreement to develop the products follows Motorola&rsquo...

The European Union has spelled out specific requirements and safeguards for handling and protecting personal data. In the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU makes clear exactly what is expected of those who control and process data. (The United Kingdom has committed to follow the regulation despite the Brexit vote.) Everyone is facing a deadline on May 25th 2018 to comply with the GDPR. What are the exact implications for the physical security market? What do customers need to do...

With global events putting security at the forefront of everyone’s minds, IFSEC International 2017 was a chance for the industry to come out in force. Over 600 exhibitors and numerous seminars kept visitors informed on the latest innovations in security products, solutions and best practice. Despite the challenging heatwave, exhibitors were raring to go for the three mercifully air-conditioned days of the exhibition. SourceSecurity.com took to the show floor to check out what exhibitors we...

Exhibitors at this year’s IFSEC are thinking outside the box in terms of how they communicate their value proposition and how they interface with customers. In the process, some are rethinking how big trade shows like IFSEC fit with their goals. Panasonic's approach to the 'race to the bottom' Thomas Lausten, MOBOTIX new CEO How Gallagher benefits from IFSEC without exhibiting Panasonic Systems Communications Europe Panasonic Systems Communications Europe is one of several compani...

Has there ever been a better time for a security trade show in Europe? Shifting threats such as terrorism and a volatile political climate serve as reminders every day of the importance of security in our lives, and even the role of technology. IFSEC opened in London on Tuesday at the ExCeL centre, covering every aspect of security, from access control and video surveillance to home automation and perimeter security. Amid sweltering heat, attendees came to find the latest-and-greatest innovatio...

ISC West in Las Vegas kicked off Wednesday with an expanding focus on new technologies and new applications, including some that go beyond any narrow definition of “the security industry.” Qognify QBlock and Cloudscann “Technology is disrupting the market and executives are taking our solutions beyond security,” says Moti Shabtai, CEO and President of Qognify. “They are starting with security and quickly moving to other risk and business continuity issues in the...

“Mixed reality” may seem like a strange term to apply to the physical security industry, but it describes a new approach to enable the features of access control and video surveillance systems to be used by operators in the field. Mixed or augmented reality technology combines a real-time view of the world through Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, with placement of virtual devices and controls as holograms in a three-dimensional space. Virtual devices and controls In effect, a s...

What happens to a company’s data in the case of a disaster such as 9/11 or Hurricane Sandy? How can a company recover from a disaster and continue their business uninterrupted? It’s a complicated challenge – and one many security professionals and risk management professionals must consider. Companies like Recovery Point provide resources to help a company survive a catastrophic event and keep its computer programs and business processes running. Their customers include large,...

The latest challenge to facial recognition technology is “anti-surveillance clothing,” aimed at confusing facial recognition algorithms as a way of preserving “privacy.” The clothing, covered with ghostly face-like designs to specifically trigger face-detection algorithms, are a backlash against the looming possibility of facial recognition being used in retail environments and for other commercial purposes. Increasingly common facial recognition technology It’s a...

There was another big trade show last week –  the four-day Security Essen event in Germany. I didn’t attend, but several of my SourceSecurity.com colleagues report it was a busy show from start to finish, with the halls devoted to video/CCTV and access control dominating the show. The other halls were quieter, with smaller stands. Hot topics included big data, machine learning, mobile credentials, storage and an emphasis on solutions (rather than products). The exhibit hall was...

The new Pokemon Go video game, which has taken the world by storm, combines real-world landmarks and locations with virtual creatures in a smart phone video game that requires players to walk around in the real world to “find” the imaginary creatures. It’s a little like what the security industry has been trying to do for years: To achieve convergence of physical and cyber worlds. Pokemon Go security risks To be sure, the new game has presented its own set of security chall...

Coming into ISC West, many in the industry had expected a renewed push toward use of mobile credentials (contained on smartphones, for example) instead of cards for access control. HID Global didn’t disappoint. A highlight of the second day of the show was a press conference in which HID Global announced new elements of its initiative to lead the industry into use of mobile credentials. Uses of smart phone credentials for identity management HID already provides SEOS mobile credentials,...

ISC West is on the immediate horizon, and I asked several industry players what they expect new and different at the industry’s big show. The answers included buzz-worthy topics from Big Data to the Internet of Things, but also mention of a perennial industry theme – integration. Video embracing social media? Tom Chamard, Executive Vice President of Sales, Salient Systems, expects social media to emerge as a larger topic of interest at ISC West, especially considering how social...

I suspect that many people – especially travellers – associate the idea of “security” with what they see at the airport screening line. If that’s the case, our market’s image suffers from the association. I’m not sure what that is, that happens at airport screening gates, but I don’t think it’s security. Rather than actual security, the practice seems aimed more at making the travelling public feel safer (if that’s possible even as th...

As industry consolidation continues, we can expect a number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the next several months, but the first M&A story of 2016 is a whopper. This week, Johnson Controls and Tyco have announced their merger into one company with annual revenue of $32 billion. The new Johnson Controls will be almost a direct reflection of one of the industry’s biggest trends – the move toward technology convergence and smart buildings. Johnson Controls has previousl...

Are smart phones poised to replace all biometrics hardware in the next several years? That’s the bold prediction of Hector Hoyos, CEO of Hoyos Labs, one of the pioneers of biometrics technology who owns 59 patents (pending and issued) related to the field. The advent of the smart phone, which amounts to everyone carrying a computer in the palm of their hand, provides all the ability anyone needs to capture biometric information to use for verification, he says. Breakthrough in technolo...

There's nothing like a visit to the China Public Security Expo (CPSE) in Shenzhen to open your eyes to a new world of security market manufacturers and customers in the Asia-Pacific market. The show is huge by Western standards – someone told me it's five times the size of ISC West in Las Vegas. But even more than the size of the show, it was the crowd that made an impression on this first-time visitor. Huge numbers of attendees and exhibitors Think of the mass of humanity you might exp...

Foot traffic improved a little on the second day of ASIS International in Anaheim, California. Furthermore, the high quality of meetings at the big industry show tended to overshadow complaints about attendance. There is plenty to talk about in Anaheim. “The conversations have been much more substantial than you usually have at a trade show,” says Charles Hunger, Product Marketing Director, Anviz Global Inc. “They’re not general conversations, they’re ‘How ca...

Where do traditional security dealer/integrators fit in the new era defined by the Internet of Things (IoT)? According to Robert C. Martens, Allegion's Futurist and Director of Connectivity Platforms, there is no need to worry. In fact, there is potentially a huge role for traditional security integrators to play in the IoT age. His explanation suggests a successful future for security integrators, but there are caveats. Networking IoT devices may seem like an information technology (IT) funct...

As my trip to London for IFSEC International ends, I can look back on three days jam-packed with new approaches, new technologies, and the best the global security market has to offer. I met people from all over the world who share an interest in physical security technology -- and how it can be used to make the world a safer place. I heard several exhibitors mention that business was slow in Europe in the early part of 2015. However, the show highlighted that R&D investment has continued t...

Security vigilance can be sporadic at many companies and institutions. Facilities tend to tighten security in the days after a scary event happens or makes headlines, and people are generally tolerant of the associated inconvenience – for a time. But as memory fades, so too does tolerance for being inconvenienced. We want to be safe, but we also don’t want to be bothered. We want a security system that both provides safety and is unobtrusive. Security doesn’t have to be inconv...