Satellite Telecommunications To Improve Security
Two companies are implementing a European Space Agency-supported project to introduce alarm monitoring and video surveillance via satellite to meet the increasing demand for security systems from the government and corporate market, reports the Science Daily.
The two companies are UK-based satellite operator Orbit Research Ltd. and the German company MediaMobil Communication GmbH. They have announced their intention to introduce the Satellite Alarm and Surveillance System (SASS) to the UK market. SASS is independent of terrestrial infrastructure and can be interfaced with standard video surveillance systems....
Lieberman Pushes For More Surveillance Cameras
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week that he wants to use surveillance cameras "more widely" across the country.
"The Brits have got something smart going in England, and it was part of why I believe they were able to so quickly apprehend suspects in the terrorist acts over the weekend, and that is they have cameras all over London and other of their major cities," Lieberman said....
Holiday Travel Begins Amid High Security
If you're trying to make your Fourth of July last three days or more, you're not alone.
More than 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from their homes some time this week -- a new record for Independence Day travel -- despite heightened security because of failed car bombings in Britain.
Most travelers, 34.7 million in all, are expected to load up their cars and hit the road for extended getaways. And about 4.7 million will traipse through airports, according to the Associated Press.
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Planned Video Analytics Conference
ioimage, a supplier of intelligent video appliances, is sponsoring and participating in the Video Content Analysis Conference organized by IMS Conferences. It is the first-ever security conference dedicated to talking about the video analytics market. In addition to helping professionals gain insight on how Video Content Analysis (VCA) can benefit their organizations, the conference will present case studies that highlight key issues related to this technology.
Taking place in London on June 25-26 at the Hilton Paddington Hotel, the conference will bring together senior executives and decision makers from VCA-related companies, including VCA software developers as well as security equipment manufacturers, integrators and end-users. ...
Combating Credit Card Risks
Using a credit card at a gasoline station could pose more of a risk for data theft than shopping online, as point-of-sale (POS) terminals have emerged as a weak link in the security chain, according to a Gartner analyst as reported by IDG News Service.
When a card is swiped, POS terminals often collect and store the data held in the magnetic stripe on the back of a credit card, says Avivah Litan, a Gartner vice president and analyst. Retailers are often unaware that their POS applications collect so much information.
In the hands of sophisticated hackers and counterfeiters, the data collected from the magnetic stripe is enough to create a replica card. "It's almost more dangerous to go to the gas station than it is online," Litan said at Gartner's Identity and Access Management Summit in London. "The data is just sitting there. No one even thought about what data is on a POS controller."...
Wireless Video Surveillance Drives Public Safety Networks
Firetide Inc., a developer of wireless mesh networks, shared the company's perspective for wireless networking in the public safety market based on its experience deploying public safety networks in 2006 and 2007. More than 50 percent of Firetide's installations include video applications.
Firetide works with law enforcement and public safety agencies across the U.S. to deploy fixed wireless surveillance for high-traffic areas (Dallas downtown), crime deterrence in high-crime areas (Rockford, Ill., Housing Authority properties), covert surveillance for criminal investigations (Phoenix police department) and temporary surveillance networks (Texas State Fair)....
School Districts Take Charge On Cyber Safety
CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G), a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Corp. and source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to governments and educators, has released the findings of the CDW-G School Safety Index, a research project benchmarking the current status of public school district safety. Based on 14 elements of physical and cyber safety, the survey of 381 school district IT and security directors highlights the indicators of strong district safety programs, as well as the barriers to school safety.
The CDW-G School Safety Index reveals that districts are having greater success with cyber security than physical security. ...
Release Of Health Records Spins Privacy Debate
Privacy groups are sounding alarms as the nation's largest insurance companies finalize plans to allow millions more customers to post their health records on the Internet.
Insurers such as Aetna Inc., Hartford, Conn., say Web-based tools help patients and physicians keep track of medical information while potentially holding down spiraling medical costs.
About 100 million insurance customers in the U.S. have access to Web-based tools, but companies don't have an estimate of how widely they are used. Insurers hope to at least double the technology's reach by the end of next year, reports the Associated Press.
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Security Flaws Found On Campuses Across Nation
The University of Washington devised a plan six years ago to protect students and faculty after a struggling medical resident shot to death his mentor, then killed himself.
A new safety team would be alerted to all threats. It would move potential victims to a new dorm or office, assign them police protection or take steps such as changing their phone numbers.
In March, when university employee Rebecca Griego told supervisors and campus police that her former boyfriend had threatened her in two recent calls to her office, no one told the safety team.
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Acquisition Pushes Cisco Further Into Surveillance
Terrorists, vandals and other villains skulking in the shadows should take note of Cisco Systems' recent acquisition of BroadWare Technologies, financial community observers have pointed out.
The BroadWare deal, while small in dollars, highlights the rising demand for companies that make video surveillance gear. Driving that trend is the confluence of Homeland security concerns in the U.S. and the spread of sophisticated security networks based on Internet technologies.
In 2006, for example, following the lead of London and other cities around the world that use high-tech tools to monitor vital infrastructure, New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority signed a $212 million contract with Lockheed Martin for the defense contractor to develop a video surveillance system to monitor the city's subways, bridges and tunnels. Other cities, such as Cleveland, Dallas and Akron, Ohio, plan similar projects.
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Lawmaker Seeks Change In California RFID Laws
Attempting to prevent a potential clash between privacy rights and the latest technological advances, a Palo Alto lawmaker is trying to dissuade the California government, schools and private businesses from tracking people through the use of radio frequency identification technology such as electronic cards and implanted devices.
A legislative package of four measures by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, was introduced in an Assembly committee on June 18, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The measures would prohibit an employer from implanting tiny ID chips in workers, block RFID technology from being embedded in driver's licenses, prohibit schools from issuing ID cards to track student attendance and make it a misdemeanor to skim identification cards - a method by which identity thieves secretly read the cards of unsuspecting people and clone new versions.
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IT Professionals Losing Database Security, Study Says
Databases are among the most widely deployed, complex, and fastest growing technologies in corporate infrastructures, according to Dark Reading, a security news source for enterprise IT and network security professionals. Stocked with vast amounts of business-critical, sensitive records, they're now the focal point in highly-damaging data breaches. It's a safe bet that perpetrators will target databases even more in the days ahead.
Yet, as businesses rush to provide real-time information flow inside and outside their organizations, database security remains one of the least understood and most under-funded aspects of corporate security -- and IT is yelling for help.
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Security Technology Needs Human Guidance
Diverse, accurate methods for detecting bomb material and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are entering the marketplace, but even when fully automated or integrated with each other, these technologies offer little protection without personnel trained to think like the adversary, say industry and research experts.
"The advances we're seeing in detection technologies are impressive, and it's an area where people are trying to fully automate the process, but, at the end of the day, security is human-based," says Amotz Brandes, a former Israeli soldier and currently director and managing partner of Chameleon Associates, Canoga Park, Calif., a security consulting firm.
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NCTA Convention Shows Intelligence And Risk
A lineup of government and business security experts warned attendees at the North Carolina Technology Association's "Five Pillars" conference that competitors, foreign agents and even disgruntled employees pose serious risks to keeping trade secrets safe.
The conference's goal, according to News 14, Cary N.C., was to bring businesses together with the intelligence community. It's a partnership the NCTA hopes will offer ways to protect valuable assets.
"An example is an e-mail sent from another country which has a program in an attachment that once it's open, it can draw information from that company," says Nathan Gray, FBI Special Agent in Charge.
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"Street View" -- Illegal Or Annoying?
Google's Street View stunned many with its photos of the unsuspecting, from a man climbing a front gate to another walking out of a strip club, but it's hardly the first time the company has compiled a massive database of material that some would want to remain private -- and that raises security issues.
Street View is a map that allows users to zoom down to street level, viewing 360-degree panoramic photos and they stroll through town one mouse click at a time. Like so many technologies, it began as something useful for military purposes before people saw a more general use -- or potential abuse, say in the case of a criminal that might use it to choose a possible target.
But now with Google serving up images from the sky with Google Earth, creating street-level images with Street View and tracking customer behavior in cyberspace, some are starting to ask: how much is enough? ...
Proposal Standardizes Video Analytics For Loss Prevention
In order to boost the effectiveness of retail loss prevention and to improve the in-store customer experience, Cisco submitted a proposal to standardize how computers describe surveillance video for image analysis to the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation. A group of retailers asked Cisco to work with them to develop a consistent way to access video analytic metadata from various vendors.
Video surveillance has traditionally been used in retail for loss prevention. With the aid of computer processing and analysis of video, retailers can further enhance loss prevention efforts and better understand customer behaviors, as well as improve the customer experience.
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Lockheed Martin Opens Biometrics Center
Lockheed Martin opened the Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts (BEACON) center in White Hall, W. Va., to serve as a collaborative center for the corporation, its customers, academia and other industry partners to develop integrated biometrics solutions for both current and future initiatives.
"Biometric technology offers great promise for the future, especially in initiatives that are important to the security of our nation," says Judy Marks, president of Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions. "Research and development is key to realizing this type of technology's full potential."
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Security Appliances Market Growth Expected
Research and Markets has announced the addition of "Worldwide Security Appliance Market: What Businesses are Buying and Why" to their offering.
Security appliances are an integral part of the noisy and crowded network security market. Over the last several quarters, two key trends are impacting the overall security market. One is the integration of security into underlying equipment and infrastructure. Another is the continuing cost and complexity of managing security in a multi-vendor, multi-product environment, which many believe will open the door for managed security services from trusted brands.
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Cisco And Microsoft Executives To Present At Conference
The Security Standard conference brings together senior corporate, security and IT professionals to examine how to develop an effective security strategy that can advance overall business needs and goals of an organization. The second annual conference, which will be held Sept. 10-11, 2007, in Chicago at the Fairmont Hotel, will feature keynotes from Cisco Systems' executives and a Microsoft security executive.
A special Thought Leaders' Roundtable on Sept. 10 will feature Cisco's security pros discussing the changing threat landscape. The roundtable participants will include Cisco executives Richard Palmer, senior vice president of the security technology group; Jeff Platon, vice president and CMO of the security and application networking group; and Scott Weiss, co- founder and CEO of IronPort Systems. ...
Plans For A Fla.-Based Security Training Campus
A proposed $100 million facility envisioned as an extensive security training center has targeted 3,000 acres in Charlotte County, Fla., for a university-style campus with such areas as gun ranges, caves, tunnels and a watercraft assault lake.
The center would train FBI, CIA, military and local and state law enforcement officers -- turning even private security guards into GI Joes able to protect ports, refineries and other vulnerable areas in the United States.
Millions of dollars in federal contracts are up for grabs for the proposed center, named The Grove.
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Still Time To Nominate The 2007 Security Director of the Year!
Each year, we honor one outstanding security director who best exemplifies the qualities that every security director should strive to acquire. He or she is a person who embodies technology and business leadership, inspires employees and demonstrates unparalleled devotion to advancing the security of his or her organization.
If you know someone who fits that description, there is still time to nominate him or her for the honor.
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Companies
Mergers & Acquisitions Verizon Business, has agreed to acquire Cybertrust, Herndon, Va., a privately-held provider of global information security services....
From The Field
HEALTH CARE How Potomac Hospital Ensures Network Security Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Va., has selected SonicWALL's network security, secure wireless,...
Businesses Not Prepared For Disaster, Says Study
Despite another year filled with hard-lessons learned from tornadoes, floods and fires, 30 percent of businesses across the country are still not prepared for the worst-case scenario, according to AT&T's annual study on business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness for U.S. businesses in the private sector.
Key findings from the 2007 AT&T Business Continuity Study include:
Of the 10 cities surveyed this year, businesses in New York ranked first in terms of being the most prepared for natural and man-made disasters, and businesses in Cleveland came in last. ...
In Search Of Answers About Campus Security
Many schools and universities are looking for better ways to get the word out to students and others on their campuses when an incident occurs. On large campuses such as Virginia Tech, which has more than 26,000 students, it is unlikely that any one method of sending out news will reach everybody. Some students may be in classrooms, others may be napping in their residence halls; some may be strolling across campus; others may be hunkered down in the library for uninterrupted study.
Among the systems that schools around the nation are using or considering are ones that can deliver messages by intercom, telephone, computer or wireless devices. Using a variety of delivery methods, a school is more likely to get the message out in ways that students are accustomed to using. ...
