Southeast Asia’s diverse mall scene offers unique shopping experiences for tourists as well as locals, with highend boutiques to one-of-a-kind night markets. Megabangna Shopping Centre (the Centre), located in Bangkok, is one of Thailand’s largest retail complexes. With 4 million square feet of space, over 840 retail shops, and parking for 10,000 vehicles, the Centre is the first shopping mall of its kind in the region – creating a unique security need. AVIGILON SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED Avigilon Control Center (ACC) video management software Simplified screen layout, intuitive controls, and customizable features that enhance how security professionals interact with high-definition surveillance video. HD Multisensor cameras Flexible design can capture multiple angles of a scene, to maximize scene coverage and minimize blind spots. H4 Dome and H4 Bullet Cameras Available from 1 MP to 4K Ultra HD resolution, our H4 platform cameras provide excellent coverage for seeing activity in complete darkness, and are embedded with Avigilon self-learning video analytics. HDSM SmartCodec technology helps reduce bandwidth when viewing HD video. Network Video Recorder (NVR) A high-performance, high-cap With the motto ‘everything under one roof,’ the Centre quickly earned a reputation as the perfect place to spend the weekend with friends and family, or to pick up everyday household needs. As a result, excessive crowds pack the walkways and the mall’s 10,000 parking spots are regularly filled. Security needs for a cultural hub Given the complexity of the Centre facility, and the high foot and vehicle traffic acquired onsite, the security solutions in place needed to be reassessed. Commonly reported incidents at the mall included cars being vandalized or broken into while parked in on-site structures, and busy shoppers losing personal items throughout the mall grounds during their visit. By addressing gaps in coverage throughout the mall, the Centre’s security team knew that they could more easily track down lost items for distressed visitors, monitor suspicious activity, and in turn prove or disprove claims. The safety and security of customers – along with ensuring a great customer experience for every visit – are top priorities for the Centre. Implementing a comprehensive security system was also an important part of the Centre’s loss prevention strategy to save the company time and money. Mega mall, big solutions To enhance safety, the Centre, in partnership with security systems integrator Entech, deployed a complete Avigilon surveillance solution, including 500 cameras, which were installed throughout the mall and the parking lot to provide full coverage of open areas. Chosen camera models included Avigilon HD Multisensor, H4 Bullet and H4 Dome cameras. This combination directly addressed the Centre’s security team’s specific needs in their expansive area of coverage. H4 dome and H4 bullet cameras provide exceptional image quality in a range of different settings, while the HD multisensor camera has up to four cameras that cover up to 360 degrees of viewing range. These combined camera solutions help minimize blind spots, which allows the Centre’s security team to monitor important activity throughout the premises, both indoors and outside. The cameras are only half the solution for the Centre. The hub of the security solution is the Avigilon Control Centre (ACC) video management software. With advanced and fast video search features, the software enables security operators to quickly find and review surveillance footage, helping the Centre security team resolve thefts and similar claims at a higher rate than with the legacy solution. Benefitting security Professionals and shoppers The installation of Avigilon solutions took half the estimated length of time, making the transition easy for the Centre’s team from the start. Once installation was complete, ACC™ software further simplified things for the security team by allowing them to identify problematic situations with powerful and efficient software. When searching footage of areas with heavy foot traffic, the Centre’s security team was able to identify problems around the busy mall in record-breaking time. “Security operators are expected to turn around footage necessary to address a problem within 10 minutes,” said Miss Paphitchaya Suwandee, Megabangna Shopping Centre’s President. Since deploying ACC software, the Centre has shortened a process that at times could take hours or days – Avigilon’s easyto-use software helps them search footage in under 10 minutes, while saving effort and money during an investigation. Given this measurable success, the Centre recently expanded the use of Avigilon solutions into an additional parking structure. Today, the Avigilon solutions implemented help make the mall security team’s jobs easier and keep patrons safe.  

Sonit Jain, CEO, GajShield Infotech The sight of spammy and fake comments on social media posts and other websites is not uncommon today. Any post on a public platform is likely to be flooded with repetitive, inappropriate, and generally hate-fuelled comments in today’s day and age. This problem is particularly seen on comment forums of social media websites if proper response management and censorship is not ensured by individuals, organisations, or social media companies. As we know, social media is a big tool for marketing and optics today. When your organisation posts something on Facebook or Instagram, they wish to gauge how their target audience reacts to them. For organisations, social media response from the general public represents an important channel of communication for future research and development. So, if the comment sections of such posts are riddled with vulgar messages generated by pornbots or thousands upon thousands of other junk messages, then the purpose of social media presence for organisations is entirely defeated. One of the main technologies used to generate fake comments is AI. AI-powered bots are capable of generating spam on the internet. Misinformation through these bots can spread like wildfire over the web. From a data security angle, many of these spam comments or emails received by individuals may contain malware that can damage user devices and corrupt the data stored in them. AI systems’ ability to generate fake comments AI-powered systems can be used to create comments that may seem human-generated to an uninitiated viewer. However, the thousands and thousands of fake comments serve the purpose of overshadowing the views of actual people regarding a product, an incident, or the overall performance of a ruling government. It is well-known that people in power can use social media platforms to draw out the opinions of those who do not agree with their views. As we know, two of the main principles of cybersecurity are fairness and transparency. The generation of fake likes, comments and responses on an online platform goes against those principles, and, by extension, data security in general. Cybercriminals or big, powerful organisations, public bodies, and individuals can list the services of IT and telecommunications companies to use AI and text-generating tools to create thousands of ‘public’ comments on social media posts. The comments are generated in every forum and place where online audience interaction is present. The service-providing companies not only create fake comments but also steal information related to us ernames and profile pictures of individuals before duplicating data to create fake accounts. Due to this, the concept of net neutrality is severely threatened. If one observes the fake comments closely, they are often copy-paste jobs with a few minute variations. Often, even spelling mistakes appearing on one comment will be replicated onto several identical comments. So, how are the comments generated? Misinformation spreaders use powerful tools such as the Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), the most powerful natural language generator in the world, to create fake text and replicate it. As stated earlier, fake comments are created in such a way that they seem real. Organisations must assign a team of social media moderators to deal with this issue. Moreover, there are several AI tools that can be used to counter the problem of spamming and misinformation too. In a way, AI provides both the problem and solution in such instances. AI-generated spam can disrupt the internet As we know, spam is not just restricted to comments but other things such as emails, instant messaging texts and connected mobile devices. Text-generating devices make large volumes of data in the form of bogus blogs, spam videos, and even entire websites. Such content is driven by specific keyword phrases, and as a result, usually goes undetected by search engines such as Google Search. As expected, the relentless generation of spam content causes excessive traffic online and can be debilitating for the speed and efficiency of search engines as well as your organisation’s online operations. Such platforms must employ tools that closely monitor data all kinds of data and filter it out. The internet will not function with its characteristic nimbleness if it keeps getting inundated with spam and fake AI-generated data. While this may not be a cybersecurity-related issue, it does have a detrimental impact on the digital operations of your organisation. Ways to deal with fake accounts and comments There have been several examples of big websites eliminating millions of fake accounts to reduce clutter and misinformation spread. On their end, organisations can also take certain measures to get rid of fake accounts and comments to reduce the possibilities of malware attacks and extensive spam infestation of their social media posts. The measures to be taken to deal with fake accounts and comments are: Using some of these social media management tools can be useful to increase the traffic in your online pages in the right way. This second measure involves having a rough idea of how many followers on social media pages are real and how many are fake. While this step may be challenging, it can be countered by increasing the number of ‘real’ followers. There are specific web tools that can be used to differentiate real users from fake ones. Using these tools, the number of fake accounts can be detected, reported and blocked. A periodic audit of your online pages can be useful to get rid of fake comments on your posts. Additionally, users must be made to pass through digital gateways to scan whether they are humans or AI-generated bots. Tools such as Captcha are currently being used for the purpose. As stated earlier, fake accounts and comments threaten to take away the sovereignty of the internet and place it in the hands of a few powerful entities. On top of that, the presence of malware and Trojan horse viruses bring cyber threats into the mix. Therefore, apart from using anti-spam tools, your organisation needs to deploy the best data security products and services in order…

Every sector of industry and society has certifications and standards. Covering every area – from the origin of ingredients in our favourite foods to the robustness of industrial machinery – certification plays an important role in trust between organizations and their stakeholders. The surveillance and security sector is no different, with local, regional and international certifications and standards applying to hardware, software and the way that businesses operate. A common misperception is that two products with the same certification are of equal quality, however, this is often not the case. Axis has a philosophy of looking ‘beyond the standard;’ seeing certifications as a baseline not a target, and often bringing new products to market that far exceed the require ments of any existing or future certifications and standards. There is no doubt that certifications and standards are important. This is reflected by the need for products, services and technologies to be certified being something increasingly mandated by organizations searching for new solutions. Governments, too, in an effort to meet national objectives and goals in areas from sustainability to security, are creating new standards that they demand any businesses operating within their borders adhere to. Every business in any sector will quickly find its ability to operate and attract customers severely impeded if it can’t show that its products have achieved the required certifications. What may have once been ‘nice to haves’ are today ‘must haves.’ However, there’s also a risk associated with adherence to certifications and standards becoming too much of a ‘box-ticking’ exercise; that once this is achieved, subsequent measures of quality are less rigorously examined. Becoming too reliant on certifications and standards as the de facto measure of product quality – in all factors – can be dangerous, particularly in innovative sectors. The natural ‘lag’ in certifications While meeting certifications brings a certain peace of mind to customers and governments, they also come with challenges. In highly-innovative areas – the security and surveillance sector is certainly an example – where new technologies and capabilities are constantly being developed and brought to market, certification inevitably lags behind. Put simply, it’s impossible to define certifications and standards for something which is yet to be created. Axis and certification The fact that certification and standards lag behind innovation means that it is essential that organizations operating in such sectors set their own standards in key areas of product quality, security and ethical practices. This is certainly the case at Axis, where quality in everything the company does has been in the company’s DNA since it was founded, as it created products such as the world’s first network video surveillance camera and in each innovation since. While quality as a core value is central to what Axis develops and produces, there are three broad areas of focus for the business: Hardware: Functionality, robustness, safety, sustainability. Software: Reliability, availability, cybersecurity. People and partners: Codes of conduct, ethical behaviour, anti-corruption. In all of these areas there are established international, regional and local certifications, and Axis obtains the relevant certifications and demonstrably meets the standards required in any market in which it operates. In the vast majority of cases, the process of Axis obtaining certification is one of ‘proving’ that the company’s technologies, products and solutions meet the requirements of the certification – whether existing or new – rather than needing to ‘improve’ them to reach the standard required. The company’s internal systems, processes and frameworks mean that its products usually go far beyond subsequent certifications. Staying across certifications and standards As mentioned, it’s vital that companies like Axis are aware of the ever-changing certification and standards that are relevant to the different aspects of the business; in different sectors and industries; in every country around the world where Axis operates. It’s no small task, and one which takes the combined efforts of teams across the organization. From the perspective of hardware and software, specific Axis teams developing new strategic technologies and products will ensure that they go well beyond the industry standards. In just one recent example, Axis has taken the decision to create a new subsidiary to design and manufacture explosion-protected cameras and which has had its quality management system audited and found to be in compliance with the appropriate international standards. In doing so – and in controlling the production of the explosion-protected cameras from chip to casing – Axis can take full responsibility for product quality. Many industry segments also have specific certifications and standards, and the segment teams at Axis – from retail to transport – ensure that relevant certifications are obtained (and which can vary significantly from country to country). For instance, in the UK, the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) will approve technologies that it regards as being of the standard required to help secure the nation’s most important facilities. Similar bodies exist in every industry around the world. Membership of international standards organizations is also an important way to stay informed and achieve relevant certifications. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is one such body, and has established more than 7,000 standards for electrical devices and systems. With more than 500 new standards being published by the IEC in 2020 alone – and this being just one of many international standards organizations – the challenge of staying current is obvious. Other industry organizations, associations and forums – such as ONVIF, of which Axis was one of the founders, and the Security Industry Association in the USA – can be valuable places for discovery and discussion around relevant new standards. Compliance can’t mean complacency As highlighted in the headline of this article, Axis regards certification as a ‘baseline’ – a minimum requirement rather than a target. It’s a common misperception that two products which have the same certification or meet the same standard are of the same quality. This is rarely the case. Unfortunately, certifications can become a ‘box-ticking’ exercise which takes place during the early stages of a purchasing process and which is then…