Day: December 24, 2020

The cloud has emerged as a more scalable and open option for businesses of all sizes, the security industry is no exception. Read on to discover how the cloud can make premises security of small and medium-sized businesses more cost-effective, efficient, flexible, scalable, and ultimately more effective with convergence and automation. More and more businesses today are leveraging the cloud to improve business operations and management. In retail, for example, progressive retailers have been implementing cloud commerce solutions for their order management, inventory management, financial consolidation and customer relationship management (CRM). Similarly, the physical security industry is embracing cloud in a big way. Cloud-based security systems – which bring together security, networking, storage, analytics and management – are increasing in popularity due to their impressive safety and operational benefits. So what exactly are the benefits of a security solution that’s managed in the cloud? In this blog, we examine five reasons why cloud should be front of mind for small and medium-sized businesses for their premises security solution. Security information at your fingertips: Always A cloud-based security solution enables businesses to access and manage all of their security devices anytime, anywhere, and on any internet-enabled device. And when businesses have multiple premises to manage, the cloud provides an easily accessible and secure collation point for information from all secured buildings. Managers can check live video and stored data from each location, even when they are travelling, as long as there is an internet connection. Reduced upfront investment and easy setup All businesses want platforms or services that offer simplicity, with as few assets to manage as possible, and a setup that’s ultra-simple. This is precisely where the cloud delivers. Through a cloud hosting infrastructure, there is no need for a local server or software to be deployed; to get started, all you need is a username and password, and you can easily connect devices like video cameras to the internet for preview and playback. This is particularly useful for organisations with smaller/ fewer sites and fewer cameras, as it helps reduce the cost of hardware investment and ongoing management. Scalability and flexibility Scalability is one of the main reasons to migrate to the cloud. Whether traffic or workload demands increase suddenly or grow gradually over time, companies choose a cloud solution because it’s scalable, allowing businesses to increase storage and performance appropriately and cost-effectively. This is very much the case for cloud-based security solutions. When businesses grow, the cloud enables their security system infrastructure to scale with it. Companies can add new devices, services, functionality and enhanced analytics and data storage in stages, to suit their growth and development. Remote system maintenance 24/7 Cloud-based platforms can help make managed security services far more responsive. Security service providers and alarm receiving centers (ARC) can constantly monitor the health of an end-user’s security system and resolve any problems remotely, delivering a sophisticated service without the added expense of an on-site visit. All that’s required is consent from end users when the system is deployed. For businesses, this offers peace of mind that their security system is up and running 24/7. Any issues such as device failure or communication loss can be addressed rapidly and efficiently. Technology that’s always up to date Technology is always changing. So for on-premise systems, regular maintenance must be carried out on-site or through remote desktop. This can be a burden to IT services, especially if there are multiple sites. A cloud-based solution, however, requires no onsite manual updates, as customers will stream the latest version of the software that is fully and centrally maintained by the service provider. This saves a significant amount of time, while reducing the potential of security lapses and the associated risks. A convergent, cloud-based security service solution from Hikvision Prama Hikvision’s cloud-based security service solution, Hik-ProConnect, is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and residential applications. It uses industry-leading standards and protocols for maximum security and reliability, making it ideal for today’s security market. Incorporated with all these cloud-hosting benefits, Hik-ProConnect allows users to converge multiple devices into one management platform with a single login. This goes above and beyond conventional security systems made up of disparate elements. Integration of devices provides users with different types of events to suit their requirements, away from manual approaches to the use of automation. Examples of device linkage include merging intercom calls and intrusion or access events with video verification. Whether being used to manage a single simple site or multiple complex locations, Hik-ProConnect ensures users enjoy an up-to-date and smooth running security system.  

So, as we near the end of 2020, I imagine there are many CISOs, CIOs and indeed business leaders sitting out there, patting themselves on the back as they survey their workforces, established in remote/ hybrid office-and-home systems, happily and productively accessing data and continuing to work in an entirely new way. It’s true that their teams have been, like so often, unsung heroes, making the impossible possible in the first part of the year. However, I’m afraid I need to burst this bubble. In 2021, I believe we will start to realise exactly how much intellectual property was stolen by external attackers and malicious insiders during the 2020 remote working shift with the implications it had on ways-of-working, maintaining infrastructure security and continuing to protect data everywhere. What did we do? Almost overnight organizations flipped a switch from a predominantly office-based workforce to remote workers using a plethora of operating systems and equipment. Employees with a wide range of technical know-how were left to set up and configure home networks and devices, while IT teams added and tried to scale VPNs and moved data into SaaS applications. It is almost as if companies gave up on protecting the perimeter, and trusted in basic networking and cloud services to protect what I call the ‘branch office of one.’ The old perimeter is clearly gone, data needs to be more accessible than ever, and the ability for the user to work remotely is paramount. It’s my view that we don’t yet know what impact this has had, and 2021 will start to unveil it to us. Did we keep an eye on our attack surface and did we really examine the vulnerabilities we exposed during this time? When cloud service providers spun up new clouds or SaaS applications for us, did the security keep pace and did our policies get applied consistently? Has lockdown meant that cyber-enforcement got lighter? Did cybercriminals think they could get away with stealing data while security and IT teams’ attention was elsewhere? The treasure trove has been opened right up, and security teams should not rest on their laurels. From past experience, I must assume that we haven’t moved as fast as the attackers, and that 2021 will see several large data breaches revealed, while some firms discover to their horror that what appear to be nation state attackers or well-organized criminal groups have infiltrated their defences. Like it forcefully happened to digital transformation programs, the notion of multi-year security programs will be replaced, in 2021 and beyond, with more agile security. We need to move at ‘bad guys speed,’ and our responses to threats must be completed at the same rate of change we would expect from a business model pivot or adaptation. The imperative of visibility in 2021 imperative for enterprises in the next year. In this way, 2021 can become the year of working securely, regardless of location. These new patterns are here to stay, and we must do our best to introduce resiliency, security and visibility into our efforts. As part of this, we must address the elephant in the room. Data loss is damaging to business, and in order to stop that loss, we need to know exactly where our data is, on a minute-by-minute basis. That means we must introduce real-time (or near real-time) user activity monitoring. We should be monitoring to prevent data loss, not productivity tracking. Transparency in the roll-out of these solutions and the careful consideration of user privacy should be at the heart of any user activity monitoring solutions. Forrester analyst Chase Cunningham has advised, “If you aren’t monitoring your data, your intellectual property is walking out of the door, and you’ll be out of business in twenty years.” The fact that we have shifted to remote working so quickly, and relatively smoothly, may mean that we have no need to go back to a structured perimeter. But we will need a fast movement towards user activity monitoring – an approach that relies on analytics to understand data access patterns. Without visibility of data in this way we cannot scale and understand how to work productively, flexibly and securely. Through the combination of behavioral analytics and indicators of behavior (IoBs), we can achieve visibility alongside control. Data usage must be examined and understood in context, and data loss prevention policies applied adaptively and dynamically. If we can create cybersecurity technologies which build upon machine learning and analytics to measure and understand data movements in quasi real-time, we can avoid the upcoming dawn of disappointment on the horizon. As the ‘new normal’ becomes ‘just normal,’ leaders must get the basics right – revisit their policies and processes, validate their posture and risk appetite, and avoid assumptions that all is well just because they haven’t seen an incident yet. Longer term, cloud-native solutions with a deep understanding of users’ behavior will deliver permanent solutions, rather than stopgaps when it comes to protecting data and intellectual property.  

Even as efforts to control the COVID19 pandemic intensify, the world is preparing to re-open economies and get back to business. Economies, jobs and livelihoods are in dire need of revival after the long pandemic-induced hiatus, but businesses and governments also have the unenviable task of ensuring public health safety. Amidst all this, video technology solutions have emerged as one of the key tools for governments and businesses to ensure the safety of customers, employees and the general public. Video’s key role in fighting the COVID19 pandemic transportation Video came to the aid early in the battle against COVID19. As the pandemic unfolded globally, immigration counters at airports were equipped with thermal cameras that helped screen passengers for COVID-related symptoms. Thermal imaging, which ensures that scanning is contactless and safe for both the tester and the tested, is now being adopted more widely around transportation. International Airports across nine Indian cities have installed thermal cameras and Indian Railways is rolling it out across more and more railway stations in India. Healthcare For healthcare providers and hospitals, video technology is providing safer alternatives for patient care and treatment. Tele-Kiosks for instance are facilitating video consultations with doctors, making contactless and distant consultation possible. These kiosks are connected to devices which can monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, oxygen saturation and temperature. This enables healthcare workers and doctors to remotely monitor COVID-infected patients, with fewer in-person touch points required. This could also enable tele-medicine for less critical patients so that resources in short supply such as hospital beds and PPE equipment can be saved for patients who need it more. Public spaces The threat of increased infection has made social distancing and crowd control mandatory in public places, shops, offices and business establishments – wherever there is potential for people to gather in large numbers. As businesses start to re-open, enforcing these measures will become even more of a challenge and virtually a tightrope walk between safety and sustenance. Video technology solutions, combined with an open platform video management Software, can help provide a feature-rich tech platform to tackle the challenges ahead. With advanced features such as heat mapping and occupancy statistics, crowd counting for public spaces within retail or private sectors, distancing detection and enforcement of one-way direction in retail outlets, businesses can ensure better compliance within safety measures. With an open platform VMS, business owners will be able to regulate access from a centralized location and benefit from statistics and data gathered. An open platform VMS will also allow the integration of other devices such as audio, visual display systems and even mobile devices to help with challenging issues like crowd control. Drones and robots can also be integrated with the VMS to aid with social distancing measures on a much larger scale. Data privacy concerns must be addressed With visual and other forms of data being increasingly collected through the adoption of video and other technologies, data privacy is a key concern for both businesses and individuals to watch out for. Businesses and governments must use the powers of technology responsibly as outlined in the guidelines of international legislation such as the GDPR and Milestone’s Copenhagen Letter. With the increasing need for provisions such as contact tracing,The EY Future Consumer Index found that the public is now more receptive to make private information available if it’s for the greater good of the society. For example, millions of people in India have downloaded the ArogyaSetu app to stop the spread of COVID-19 through community-driven contact tracing – even if that means having to constantly share their location with the App. In Singapore, we found that eight in ten Singaporeans are receptive to the usage of video technology such as thermal imagining cameras and crowd management video analytics, when underpinned by a health benefit. Yet, there is still a significant portion of the population that is unfamiliar with the purpose and benefits of such solutions, and therefore greater public education of benefits, protection and privacy regulations is required to sustain the overall acceptance of video technology. This shows that despite people’s willingness to part with private data for a greater common cause, businesses still have the responsibility to prioritize data protection and privacy as it emerges as a key tool, changing the ways we live and do business. Innovation that ensures that businesses and governments can maximize the value add of data while respecting individual privacy and data protection regulations will be the way forward in our future.