Network / IP security - Security beat

Long-predicted consolidation in the video surveillance market seems to have slowed somewhat lately – no big mergers or acquisitions have been announced. However, the announced “partnership” between industry giants Bosch and Sony this week presents a new variation on the theme. No companies changed hands, but the result is one fewer player selling video equipment into the market. In the latest deal, Bosch will handle the sales and marketing globally for all of Sony’s vide...

Arecont Vision created the category of multi-sensor panoramic cameras back in 2006. Now the market is taking off, and many manufacturers now offer panoramic cameras. I recently spoke with Jeff Whitney, Arecont Vision’s Director of Marketing, on the current market for panoramic cameras, and also about some other hot topics – from cybersecurity to making the installer’s job easier. SourceSecurity.com: Where do you see the category of multi-sensor panoramic cameras going from he...

ONVIF will be eight years old in the next several weeks. It has been interesting to watch the open industry forum’s impact on physical security since it began in 2008 with a goal to develop a global standard for the interface of IP-based physical security products. ONVIF’s influence has accelerated just in the last year, with the number of ONVIF-conformant products in the market growing from about 5,000 a year ago to more than 7,000 today – more than a 40 percent increase. ON...

A big cyberattack on Friday impacted Internet service on the East Coast of the United States and kept several high-profile websites offline. Cyber security attacks later in the day were more global in nature. But Oct. 21, 2016, will also be remembered as the day our physical security industry’s legacy of apathy toward cybersecurity came back to haunt us. Denial of service attack The cyberattack last week was carried out by a botnet, a network of bots, which are software applications (in...

Add March Networks to the growing list of companies in the physical security market that are addressing the possibility of cyber-threats. Cybersecurity is especially relevant to two of March Networks’ primary vertical markets – banking, whose focus on money requires stringent cybersecurity; and retail, which has been the target of recent cybersecurity attacks. “People just don’t know what to do with cybersecurity,” says Dan Cremins, Global Leader, Product Manageme...

The future of drones in the security and safety industry is sooner than you think. Tyco Integrated Security and Percepto offered a glimpse of that future at ASIS 2016: Autonomous drones that can patrol a perimeter 24 hours a day, seven days a week, managed remotely and able to perform multiple tasks on-site. The technology was developed by Israeli-based Percepto, based on innovation with roots in the Israeli military. Percepto has sharpened its focus on computer vision and applied it to allow d...

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 ASIS show has not traditionally been a big forum for new product introductions -- those happen mostly at ISC West in the spring. Even so, there is plenty of technology to see at this year's show, and many exhibitors now say the products they were talking about last spring are now ready to ship. On Day Two of the show, it seems a lot of the attendees are ready, too. Video camera technology The technologies of video cameras march on, and Hanwha Techwin America has embraced the new H.265 cod...

The amount of data generated by today’s video systems – whether resulting from increasing camera counts and/or higher resolutions such as 4K – is presenting new challenges when it comes to storing the data and making it instantly accessible to end users. The surge in data is opening the way in our market for new, more sophisticated IT systems to manage and store the data. In fact, the sheer volume of video data and increasing application demands make some legacy approaches obso...

No doubt about it, the ASIS International show is smaller than in years past. And there is (the usual) grumbling about slow attendee traffic (and the also predictable counter-arguments about “the quality of the leads.”) Some of the security and safety technology being featured was introduced earlier at ISC West, but there is still plenty to see in the exhibit hall. Growth of mobile credentials Mobile credentials are a hot topic again, and Lenel has joined the growing number of comp...

Creating and accessing intelligence is increasingly part of the mission of corporate security departments, and of Safe Cities applications. Such capabilities were previously the domain of military and government applications, but the same approaches used to provide intelligence from military bases can also be applied to Safe Cities and corporate security projects. Edge360 is a six-year-old company with roots in the military and Department of Defence surveillance. Now, Edge360 is looking to app...

The power of video as evidence in a court of law is often seen as a function of specific variables: How clear is the video? What exactly does it show? Can it be authenticated? Possibly lost in the discussion is the fact that the value of video as evidence is decided almost completely by people, specifically by a small group of people; that is, the jury. Is there a gap between what the video “shows” and what people “see?” Are there psychological or even physiological vari...

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...

IFSEC International 2016 by all measures was a successful show. Two of the three days clearly met (or exceeded) exhibitors’ expectations. The third day was slower, but is it any wonder? Heavy rains and resulting commuter train complications would have discouraged all but the most determined. And there was another distraction, too: It was the day of the Brexit vote, when the United Kingdom made history. Results of that momentous vote underlined the sense of uncertainty I felt on the first...

Amid all the discussion of security integration and end-to-end solutions on the first day of IFSEC 2016 was an undercurrent of uncertainty. The international trade show opened at ExCel London just days before the historic "Brexit" vote, when Britons will decide whether to remain a part of the European union or to exit the politico-economic fusion of 28 member states. With the Brexit referendum this week, the polls are neck-and-neck, so the vote could go either way, hence the uncertainty. If "le...

  Numbers tell the story of security at the Euro 2016 football tournament which begins on 10th June in France. Here are some of the figures that reflect the robust level of protection and security in place across the country: 90,000 The total count of police, soldiers and private security agents who will be deployed throughout France to ensure the safety of the tournament. 77,000 How many police, gendarmes, and riot-control officers will be deployed. 13,000 The num...

There are many challenges currently facing the security marketplace, and I asked several industry players recently to reflect on those challenges. Their comments highlight familiar subjects to us all: The need for education. The challenge to meet customer expectations. The dilemma of combining old technologies with new ones. Security education and training Education is a big issue, especially as it relates to the transition to IP systems. “I think there are a number of integrators who...

Might the future of video surveillance include the use of intelligent contact lenses that incorporate tiny built-in cameras that can record video at the blink of an eye? It seems a little far-fetched, but it’s definitely an idea that’s on the drawing board. Three tech giants – Google, Samsung and Sony – have all sought to patent designs for intelligent contact lenses that include built-in CMOS camera sensors that record video, follow a person’s gaze and are contro...

The largest global event of 2016 – and the year’s biggest security challenge – will no doubt be the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Around 15,000 athletes from 206 countries are expected to compete at the Olympic games, August 5-21, 2016, and about 7.5 million tickets will be issued. In our age of terrorism, organisers of any event on the scale of the Rio Olympics must consider the possibility of an attack or other security breach during the more than two...

Recently at a conference, one of my media colleagues asked an interesting, and basic, question: What exactly is an open system? Many of us think we know what an open system is, but the ensuing discussion provided several different answers, many of them centred on what an open system is NOT (rather than what it is). An open system does not limit a customer’s options. An open system provides maximum flexibility as a system evolves over time. In other words, an open system doesn’t lo...

End users are looking to expand access control beyond its traditional role securing perimeter doors. Innovations such as wireless locks, wi-fi, power-over Ethernet (PoE) and panel-less IP architectures are yielding more flexible solutions for a larger range of locking needs both inside and at the perimeter of an enterprise. Donna Chapman, an ASSA ABLOY Integrated Solutions Specialist, notes that new technologies are increasing how many openings are secured in a building from the current 5 to 15...

No doubt about it: ISC West 2016 was a hit. Every comment I heard during the show (and since) has highlighted how busy the show was. There was plenty of booth traffic, even on the (traditionally slow) final day of the show. Some say it was the best ISC West in the last several years. Others say it was the best show ever. Quite a contrast to some other recent industry shows, plagued by meagre traffic and complaining exhibitors. Instead, there were people everywhere at ISC West, asking questio...

It seems every company is seeking to re-invent itself in our changing market. A case in point is AMAG, which has long been associated with access control. Today, AMAG’s proposition to the market is much broader than that, now also encompassing Symmetry CONNECT, a policy-based platform providing safety, security and risk management capabilities enabling organisations to manage their enterprise security functions. This spring, AMAG is introducing Symmetry GUEST, a new identity management sys...

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 was hopping on its first day, with crowded aisles, packed booths and plenty of news to share. Much of the news consists of product announcements resulting from the rapid pace of technology development in the physical security market. It was enough to cause sensory overload. Educating integrators and end users about security technology Technology is moving so fast that it’s understandable integrators, not to mention end users, might struggle to digest it all and apply it to their...

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...

Community was the big buzz-word at this year’s Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS). The folks at Milestone are long-time proponents of open systems, and presenters at MIPS 2016 described an expanded vision of how the Milestone video management system (VMS) platform can spur innovation in the market. Their “Open Platform Community” vision involves more interaction and technology development, both between Milestone and its partners (including third-party manufacturer...

Lower-cost thermal cameras are becoming attractive for more applications every day. Thermal cameras have long been known for their ability to “see in the dark” by sensing temperatures of objects and displaying a video image of temperature variations, but previously their high costs limited their appeal to mostly high-end or military applications. Now lower costs are expanding the possibilities. In particular, combining thermal cameras with video analytics drastically lowers the num...

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...

Access control and video systems have always yielded a lot of data, although historically much of it has been stored on hard disk drives and later overwritten and/or dumped. A new trend is to compile that data over time, organise it, analyse it and then use it to provide insights into how the enterprise operates. Analysing data from different sources and departments It’s part of a trend called Big Data, but so far its use in the physical security market has been limited. One company tha...