Month: February 2018

In the quest to secure our identity in an increasingly connected digital world, biometrics is flourishing throughout the globe. According to a TechSci Research report, India’s biometrics market is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 31% during 2016 – 2021. Government, banking & finance, energy & power, and consumer electronics are the key end user segments where deployment of biometric systems is witnessing an increase, and this trend is expected to continue over the next five years. In many banking services markets, biometrics is successfully authenticating millions of users at the ATM while improving the user experience, increasing transaction security and delivering trust in transactions. Accelerated adoption of biometric authentication at the ATM and related banking solutions (such as securing government pension payments, teller transactions and the opening of new accounts) are in large measure because biometrics is the only authentication method that ‘binds’ a user’s digital credentials to a person – a critical capability for eliminating digital identity theft in an environment that has become increasingly complex and vulnerable to security threats. Increasing security can create barriers to legitimate access, but biometrics bring security and convenience together, simplifying authentication while making it more robust and reliable. The technology has now advanced to the point that today’s fingerprint sensors can distinguish between legitimate and counterfeit biometric characteristics, a capability known as liveness detection. Another innovation allows the deployment of intelligent encryption-enabled and tamper-resistant fingerprint devices that further strengthen secure authentication and protect user privacy. Biometrics authentication will only grow in importance moving forward. We live in an environment where each of us has a growing list of digital identities for an expanding set of applications, stored on a variety of ID cards, tokens, smartphones and other mobile smart devices. Again, biometrics has the unique ability to bind this multitude of digital identities to an individual’s single, true identity. The challenge is how to verify this true identity in a manner that is private, secure and non-intrusive. Biometric authentication solves this challenge, creating a more satisfying and convenient user experience while ensuring that transactions are trusted and secure. The challenge of authentication at the ATM Worldwide, ATMs generally require that users validate their identity with something they have such as a card, and something they know such as a PIN. This has been in practice for decades, but is increasingly vulnerable to fraud; the more digital credentials and identities we store on ID cards, tokens and smart devices, the worse the problem turns into. According to the Norton Cyber Security Insights Report 2016, 49% of India’s online population, or more than 115 million Indians, are affected by cybercrime at some point with the country ranking second in terms of highest number of victims. Only biometrics can securely bind these digital identities to the actual person with whom they are associated. Plus, every new digital identity is just one more element to manage, and one more threat to someone’s one, true identity. In the last three years, public sector banks (PSBs) in India have lost a total of INR 22,743 crore, on account of various banking frauds. Banks are tackling the fraud problem with approaches like EMV cards. But only biometrics can confirm ‘who’ is actually transacting, and whether that person is a legitimate bank customer or a fraudster. To do this while protecting privacy and combating identity fraud, the biometric solution must use liveness detection to distinguish live fingerprints from fakes while ensuring that ATMs aren’t difficult to use. Biometrics binds a unique individual to his or her true identity, and determines ‘who’ is actually using the system, while eliminating the hassle and security risks of PINs and passwords. Biometrics also eliminates the need to carry or remember anything, allowing access and transactions with the touch of a finger. It is the only true means of making security more convenient while also linking or binding digital identities to the individual. Moving forward, using biometrics to authenticate mobile payments and other bank transactions will likely become a very big market driver. As Gartner predicted, by 2016, 30% of all organizations would be using biometrics on mobile devices and has long upheld the conviction that biometric solutions are the must-have for enterprise mobile authentication. With applications like Apple Pay and initiatives from the FIDO Alliance and others, biometric authentication is becoming more prominent in consumer-facing applications. Meanwhile, with new technology adoption comes new risks: as biometric applications become increasingly widespread, and are relied upon for securing personal transactions, deployed solutions are likely to be targeted for attack. Consequently, it will be increasingly important for those deploying biometric authentication to understand that not all biometric devices and solutions are created equal. For example, many ATMs are outdoor; in that case the biometric device at the ATM should be able to obtain high quality image under the conditions that are common in ATM environment such as dry, humid, ambient light, with large population and wide demographics. Considering major challenges such as high quality image acquisition, fake finger attacks, man in middle/ replay attacks, a thorough evaluation of biometric technology in target environment with target population is strongly recommended. ATM transactions must be convenient, and all identities used to conduct them must be protected. Banks must balance and even combine security and convenience as they manage risk, and biometric authentication makes this possible. It enables us to protect our one true identity in a way that is balanced, reasonable and efficient. Nothing in life is without risk but there are no longer valid technical or business reasons to rely on outdated security systems and practices. With biometrics, we can securely and conveniently use a myriad of digital credentials, knowing that our true identity is protected. We don’t have to forfeit security for convenience or vice-versa – we get both.     Sujan Parthasaradhi Director of Biometric Applications, APAC, HID Global  

The second edition of the leading trade event for fire safety and security – Fire and Security India Expo (FSIE) is to be held at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) in Bengaluru during 22-24 February 2018. The fair will witness over 150 leading brands displaying their technological advancements, and products and solutions catering to the wide demand of the industry. With over 10,500 square metre of exhibition space, FSIE 2018 will have live product demonstrations along with conferences and workshops addressing key topics related to fire safety and security. Buyer-seller meetings, trade delegations are some of the other concurrent events to be a part of the expo. The Finest India Skills & Talent (FIST Awards) 2018 in the field of fire safety and security will recognise the achievements of the most innovative, reliable and cost-effective products, services and solutions spanning a wide range of fields across the fire safety and security industries. The three-day trade fair will be a part of the Build Fair Alliance, a consortium of co-located events that are proposed to be conducted at the same venue coinciding with FSIE, thereby ensuring maximum number of footfalls from stakeholders of building automation and construction industry. This year the event will be co-located alongside ACREX India – leading exhibition on HVAC technology, and ISH 2018 – leading exhibition showcasing plumbing systems. The alliance of the three events together is expected to attract over 50,000 business visitors during the three days. In India, awareness about fire safety and security has grown exponentially. It has intensified over the last decade as a direct result of the country’s economic evolution. As IT and retail markets rapidly expand coupled with an increase in setting up large commercial factories, the stakes in terms of assets, investments and resources are too huge to be put at  fire and security risk. Continuing to drive the demand for fire safety and security is also the government’s focus on infrastructure development, especially with initiatives like the Smart City Mission. Pankaj Dharkar, President, Fire and Security Association of India shares, “Fire & Security Association of India (FSAI) and NuernbergMesse India joined hands together to organise the Fire & Security India Expo earlier last year, and this is the second edition of the annual trade event. The event is poised to attract the largest gathering of trade professionals witnessing product demonstrations and latest innovations by the leading brands participating at FSIE 2018 from world over.” By being the wide platform forum that it is, FSIE will bring to the fire safety and security industry, a uniquely concentrated market overview of integrated solutions for  fire protection and security, especially those that intelligently combine innovation and technology. As part of exhibits, installations and discussions, the latest technology in fire safety & security will be on display during the expo, along with their uses, advantages and ways of deployment. This will empower decision-makers with first-hand information, as well as open the stakeholders’ eyes to new possibilities. Sajid Desai, CEO, NuernbergMesse India shares, “The second edition of Fire & Security India Expo (FSIE) is a multi-dimensional platform that combines solutions for passive, active and organisational fire safety and security management. Here, official experts, architects and developers, MEP consultants, OEMs, security experts, building engineers, members of leading security and fire prevention bodies as well as fire safety & security representatives from retail, hospitality, healthcare, real estate, facility management, IT-ITEs industry and other stakeholders will gather to disseminate information, gather knowledge, exchange ideas, exhibit, debate innovative perspectives, solutions and products for  fire safety and security.” Leading players including IDEX Corporation, A.D.N. Fire Safety Pvt Ltd, Advanced International, Apollo Fire Detectors Ltd, Arihant Fire Protection Services Pvt. Ltd., Bharti Fire Engineers, Coopro Safety India Pvt Ltd, DDS Limited, FFE Ltd, IDEX India Pvt Ltd, Lubi Industries LLP, Naffco India Pvt Ltd, New Age Firefighting Co Ltd, Nohmi Bosai (India) Pvt Ltd, NSC Sicherheitstechnik GmbH, Prama Hikvision (India) Pvt. Ltd., Rapidrop India Pvt Ltd, Ravel Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Safex Fire Services Ltd, Securiton AG, Shah Bhogilal Jethalal & Bros, Topaz Fire Systems Pvt Ltd, Winco Valves Pvt Ltd among many others are ensuring that the event is the standalone platform for business excellence in the fire safety & security domain.       “The Indian fire and safety equipment market is expected to reach USD 4.94 billion by 2019. With the increased growth of the economy coupled with the government rules and regulations, the future of the Indian fire safety & security market is very bright.” – Pankaj Dharkar

Videonetics, one of the world-leading visual computing platform development companies, partnered with Kolkata Traffic Police by showcasing its complete suite of intelligent traffic management system (ITMS) at the exhibition held from 10th to 12th January 2018 at Kolkata, in celebration of Road Safety Week 2018. The exhibition was organized with an aim to propagate Kolkata Police’s mission of ‘Safe Drive & Save Life.’ The exhibition was well attended by Sr. Police Officials, engineering and technology firms, road engineering, traffic management experts and urban planners from all over India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and other SAARC countries. Videonetics ITMS comprises automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), red light violation detection (RLVD), no helmet detection, overspeed detection, no parking detection, wrong way detection, traffic congestion detection and automated e-challan system. “As our country’s mission is to build safe & smart cities and creating safer environment for all, we at Videonetics have been innovating state-of-the-art technologies to meet challenging requirements of traffic management, aiming to deter traffic violations, reduce accidents and provide road safety to all. We congratulate Kolkata Traffic Police for the tremendous success of the exhibition which successfully brought all stakeholders under one common platform and helped create much needed public awareness towards road safety,” expressed, Avinash Trivedi, VP at Videonetics.  

Netmagic Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an NTT Communications Group company, is a leading data-center and Cloud service provider in India, which has grown to support the increasing requirement for always-on access to online digital data, video surveillance and other cloud-based services. Netmagic has 7 world-class data-centres situated in major business districts in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai, with more than 10,000 servers and other communication devices to manage. They support the data storage requirements of over 2,000 enterprise customers spanning a wide range of industries including banking and financial services, e-commerce, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, education and more. Challenge Netmagic uses a combination of self-developed open-source tools to provide advanced data storage and management services to its customers, and needs a highly-available, scalable and dynamic IT infrastructure. So when the company decided to renew its datacenter networks in Bangalore and Mumbai, only a feature-rich, cutting-edge solution could do. The data-centers in Bangalore and Mumbai, named Bangalore3 and Mumbai5 respectively, required major network redesigns. Netmagic had three major requirements for the winning proposal. The network had to be non-stop because data centers operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; second, the chosen products are capable of processing large amounts of IP CCTV data for security and surveillance, building management and access control; and lastly, Netmagic wanted the total solution from a single vendor who could provide the design of the new networks, industry-leading products, and top-notch support for the installation and commissioning of the new networks. Netmagic appointed NK Jain and Epsilon Design for physical security consultancy. After careful consideration of proposals from several network vendors, Netmagic selected a complete Allied Telesis network solution. Solution Allied Telesis designed highly-reliable data-center networks and installed feature-rich products to create a resilient solution that Netmagic needed. x510 series stackable Gigabit switches are installed in both networks’ core and distribution layers of Bangalore3 and Mumbai5 Data-centers. These switches provide powerful resiliency, security and management features in a compact and highly-reliable package. The x510 switches are deployed in pairs using Allied Telesis Virtual Chassis Stacking (VCStack™), allowing them to function as a single virtual device, providing load balancing and redundancy. Using VCStack in both the networks’ core and distribution layers provides Netmagic with a high-performing solution with the capacity to support large amounts of IP CCTV data that is processed and stored in their data-centers. The x510 switches also have dual power supplies for high reliability. Coupled with the resilient network design, the new solution guarantees always-on access to online information. Several Netmagic support engineers are now certified by Allied Telesis, and manage the ongoing needs of the datacenter networks. Success The network renewal was smoothly completed without any trouble, and has been operating without issue ever since. The new network was constructed in managed phases, and was carried out with hands-on technical support from Allied Telesis every step of the way. The new data-center networks support Netmagic in supplying world-class data and CCTV storage, as well as Cloud-based services to their many valued customers, 24 hours a day, every day.       “We needed a totally redundant, non-stop network capable of processing large amounts of IP CCTV data. We also wanted a complete solution that included both network design and products. Allied Telesis provided excellent support during installation, and we were very happy with both the service and solution we received ” – Mahesh Kumar Patil                                                                                                     Assistant General Manager, Netmagic Solutions Pvt. Ltd.