February 19, 2021 - securitylinkindia

Case Study

Prama Hikvision Offers Back-to-Business Solutions for Malls and Retail Outlets to Ensure Continuity and Safety

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaFebruary 19, 2021November 14, 202407 mins

Malls and organised retail stores across India are looking for breakthrough solutions to resolve the health and safety concerns related to pandemic after they were allowed to reopen with stringent safety guidelines. To help the malls and entire retail sector to safely reopen, Prama Hikvision has developed an impressive line-up of solutions for the retail sector. These innovative solutions include the temperature screening solution, a crowd-flow management solution and social distancing solution. These Back-to-business solutions are helping the malls and retail outlets ensure compliance of public safety guidelines. Malls serve a variety of purposes in local neighborhoods. Because of that, they accommodate heavy traffic of both customers and employees every day. Today, mall staff has the added challenge of helping crowds maintain safe social distancing to minimize undue risks. That’s why Hikvision created a tailored solution for malls that can be applied effectively for flow control and precise contact distance detection, contributing to a safer environment and better shopping experience for customers. The key stakeholders of retail sector can implement the following solutions to ensure public safety and compliance of guidelines. Easy and dynamic flow control: Easy and intuitive customer flow management with market-proven people counting technology. Multi-site temperature screening: A variety of products and measures for safe and efficient temperature screening in all areas. Fully touch-free access: Embedded facial recognition for hands-free access authentication in key areas. Highly centralized management: Instant visualization of emergency events and overall statistics for situational awareness. Temperature screening Preliminary temperature screening and mask detection should be completed at the very beginning. Hikvision’s special camera models with AI enabled Algorithm make it possible to measure preliminarily skin-surface temperature of people and visitors not conforming to the minimum requirement can be stopped and prevented from entering to ensure public safety. Mask detection Checking automatically whether customers or employees wearing masks or not saves lots of time of security guards and reduces error. Hikvision’s temperature screening devices also help retailers alert when any visitor or employee violating requirement to wear mask which gives confidence to visitors for their safety and they are encouraged to visit the malls. Recommended products Highly efficient temperature screening & mask detection with thermographic cameras. Flow control Under some conditions, the number of customers entering should be maintained effectively. With Hikvison’s Fusion intelligence people counting camera or DeepinView cameras, the number of customers entering in malls can be maintained in real-time. Recommended products Fusion intelligence people counting camera. DeepinView camera. Information display Figures from Hikvision cameras can be displayed on digital signage, which supports instant visualization of people numbers, temperature and face mask status, while serving as media player for a variety of advertisement. Recommended products: Instant visualization of temperature and mask detection on digital signage or monitors. Digital signage. Temperature screening & employee attendance For the entrances of individual shops, Hikvision’s MinMoe terminals can be applied for temperature screening and mask detection. This popular face recognition terminal can be used for employment attendance, contributing to convenient and efficient employee management. Recommended products: Temperature screening and mask detection with Min. Moe terminals Social distancing & area popularity analytics for counters where there might be long queues, social distancing compliance is vital. Dual-lens cameras can measure the distance between people accurately and generate auto-alarms when they get too close together. Queue management cameras trigger notifications to front desk managers when a long queue builds up and too many people gather together, facilitating measures to keep less people in the waiting zone and elevate customer experience. Recommended products: Interpersonal distance control with dual-lens cameras. Queue management with 7-series IP cameras. Powerful data visualization and centralized management Mall managers and security staff can view statistics and records of all connected areas in real time, including statistics of temperature and mask status, employee attendance reports, and multi-site flow control status. Centralized management facilitates the pooling and coordination of resources and reduces repeated efforts for steady and efficient mall operations. Recommended products: HikCentral – Temperature Screening Safe Reopening for retail sector requires cooperation from all the stakeholders, employing the recommended best practices and maintaining safe daily habits in order to reduce the risk. Cutting-edge video technologies can help various organizations better observe the instructions and guidance. Prama Hikvision, has dedicated product packages for retail vertical specific applications and solutions including malls, retail stores and other retail outlets. It has multiple application cases across India to bolster the cause of safe reopening for the retail sector.

Feature

Bitcoin & Blockchain (Explained)

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaFebruary 19, 2021November 14, 20248118 mins

It’s fair to say that 2020 has been an exciting year for crypto. From Bitcoin’s peak in December 20 at £14,450 to new contenders such as Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash entering the running, Cryptocurrencies have been the darling of investors and speculators everywhere. One of our Berlin-based meetups was focused on Blockchain recently and you can watch the replay of the livestream at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt1ihk_7J6c&feature=youtu.be). But it may not be all sunshine and rainbows ahead. Navigating the cryptocurrency realm requires skill and an understanding of the subtleties of the market as it also comes with significant risk. From government regulations to security, within this article, we’ll look at some of the big problems facing cryptocurrencies. Let’s begin… Government regulation is inevitable Government reactions to cryptocurrencies have ranged from aggressive to indifference, with investors and speculators cautiously monitoring international developments. Just recently, the Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, stated that regulatory action from the international community on cryptocurrencies is ‘inevitable.’ Christine also said, “We are actively engaging in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism; and that reinforces our determination to work on those two directions.” According to a report by CoinDesk, in late January 2021, world leaders gathered for the Davos World Economic Forum, with several sharing the same sentiment, including the French President, UK Prime Minister, and the secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. South Korea is reported to have recently banned the trade of bitcoin and other digital currencies anonymously but says it does not intend to ban cryptocurrency exchanges. The next subject is often overlooked… There’s an issue of inheritance The unregulated nature of bitcoin means that without the keys needed to view a relative’s digital wallet, there’s no way of accessing their funds if they are to pass away. For example, five years ago, Matthew Moody died during an observational flight, and at the time he had been mining bitcoin. His father, Michael Moody, has spent the last three years trying to find out how many bitcoins his son has and how to find them. However, without knowing every single address, he is unable to locate every piece of currency. Moody has since called for better education about how to ensure investments are secured properly for those individuals mining bitcoin. I’m sure you’d already know the next one… There’s a security risk Bitcoin exchanges are digital and therefore vulnerable to hackers, operational glitches and malware. By targeting and hacking a cryptocurrency exchange, hackers can gain access to thousands of accounts and digital wallets where the cryptocurrencies are stored. One infamous example was the COX hacking incident in 2014, which saw the Japanese exchange closing down after millions of dollars in bitcoin were stolen. And the one everyone is talking about… There’s a market risk As with any investment, the value of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate, this should be no surprise. Within their short time, they’ve seen fierce swings in value and an extreme sensitivity to headlines, due to the high number of informal and amateur investors. If there’s continued resistance to the adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they may lose value. “Bitcoin exchanges are digital and therefore vulnerable to hackers, operational glitches and malware. By targeting and hacking a cryptocurrency exchange, hackers can gain access to thousands of accounts and digital wallets where the cryptocurrencies are stored. One infamous example was the COX hacking incident in 2014, which saw the Japanese exchange closing down after millions of dollars in bitcoin were stolen“ Experts, investors and budding traders will continue to speculate as to the future of cryptocurrencies. All we can know for sure is that it’s going to be an interesting journey. BLOCKCHAIN Blockchain is often touted as a world-changing technology and in many ways, it is. However, it isn’t necessarily the cure-all panacea for the world’s problems that many evangelists would have you believe. Here’s a breakdown of some of the issues with blockchain that anyone thinking of using it should understand. Starting with perhaps is the biggest… 1. Blockchain has an environmental cost At least, the way it is being used today, it does. Blockchain relies on encryption to provide its security as well as establish consensus over a distributed network. This essentially means that, in order to ‘prove’ that a user has permission to write to the chain, complex algorithms must be run, which in turn require large amounts of computing power. Of course, this comes at a cost. Taking the most widely known and used blockchain as an example – Bitcoin – last year it was claimed that the computing power required to keep the network running consumes as much energy as was used by 159 of the world’s nations. Yes, Bitcoin’s blockchain is a hugely valuable network – with a current market capacity at the time of writing of over $170 billion – and so sophisticated and computationally intense security is essential. Smaller scale blockchains – such as those that an organisation may deploy internally to securely monitor and record business activity – would consume a fraction of that. Nevertheless, it’s an important consideration, and the environmental implications as well as the energy costs can’t be ignored. 2. Lack of regulation creates a risky environment Again, this is largely a problem with Bitcoin or other value-based blockchain networks. But the fact is, as many investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for the first time in the last few months have found to their cost, it’s a very volatile environment. Due to the lack of regulatory oversight, scams and market manipulation are commonplace. Among the high profile cases is Oncecoin – recently revealed as a ponzi scheme which is believed to have robbed millions from investors who believed they were getting it early on what would become the ‘next Bitcoin.’ As with many areas of tech in recent years, legislators have largely failed to keep pace with innovators (or scammers), leading to rich pickings for those seeking to exploit ‘FOMO’ – the ‘fear of missing out.’ Even…