Fire safety assumes huge significance equally for a corporate and/ or a small enterprise. It begets proportionate impact on the businesses, and any lapse therein brings overwhelming bearing on the safety of personnel (loss of life), property, and data etc., and ultimately on the business of both entities. Majority of researches hitherto on the fire incidents that occurred across all business domains affirm that the ‘first responder’ plays the key role in diverting and mitigating the impact of a fire incident – whether the person is a security guard or an employee, or anyone else for that matter. His/ her prompt and correct reaction to the detection of fire may save many precious lives, and assets worth billions, while an erratic and/ or panic ridden reaction may cause loss of similar metrics. The compliance of building parameters as defined in the NBC 2005 in terms of the installation of fire detection and suppression systems within the building and in a premise also plays an equal role. There is a large number of fire incidents where the AP Securitas security guards have taken prompt and courageous actions to save lives and properties. They brought us laurels and appreciations from across the clients. We discuss one of the cases here: Profile of premise The branch office of one of our corporate clients is housed on the 4th and 5th floor of a five story building, called Bhanot House in Yusuf Sarai, New Delhi. While the branch manager and his staff operate from 4th floor, the advisors and others function from 5th. The aforesaid corporate client got the fire panel installed on both floors for fire detection and subsequent alarm. Their office working hours are from 09.30AM to 06.30PM, and the employees strength is approximately 150 including advisors/ agents. They observe every Wednesday as the ‘lights out day.’ Two security guards are on duty at a time in the day – one at each floor. There is no security guard at night after office closes in the evening. The building security at night is assigned to another security provider. Incident profile At about 06.30pm on the fateful day of 17 July 2019, when most of the employees had left and it was time to close the office, the branch manager instructed Uday Singh, who was the security guard deployed at 4th floor, to take a round of 5th floor and switch off all lights, and ensure that all employees had left. Mr. Angad who had left earlier that day due to some urgency at his home was the usual security guard at the 5th floor. While Uday Singh was climbing the staircase, he heard a hooter alarm. He rushed upstairs to the fifth floor where he found the training room was full of smoke up to the ceiling. There was a short circuit in the LED light mounted on the ceiling. The smoke had already spread through ceiling to the adjacent Server Room. He took prompt response, switched off the mains immediately and shouted loudly – FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! – to inform the branch manager. He dialed 101 to inform Delhi Fire Services of the fire in the premise, picked up the fire extinguisher installed on the 5th floor and entered the training room where the fire was in full blaze by then. Notwithstanding the risk to his own life, he used the fire extinguisher and doused the fire. Further, he proceeded to the Server Room which was locked by a glass door, broke the glass door and extinguished the fire using a second fire extinguisher. This is how he was able to save vital data stored in the server, and loss of other assets of not only premises of our client but of the entire building. The branch manager and the admin are the eye witness of this act of our brave security guard. This is just one incident which has been illustrated here but there are several others. For instance, two similar incidents took place in a premise of Sujan Vihar, Sector 43, Gurugram where the AP Securitas security guards saved the flat from fire in 2017. The fire broke out there when the owners of the flats had gone to their offices. Later, the concerned security guard was awarded cash prize by the RWA. In another similar incident in 2018, our security guard Buddha Prakash showed his dutifulness and saved the head office of another client from devastation due to fire located at Rattan Square building near Burlington Chowk, Lucknow. Lessons learnt Following vital lessons can be drawn out of these incidents: Adequate focus and weightage to fire safety in all types of training. Need to check premises on a daily basis just before the offices are closed. The importance of fire detection and suppression system in giving the early warning of the incident. Significance of multiple tasks needed to be done in a short span of time on detection of fire by the first responder. Selection of the right fire extinguishers for the type of fire identified. The training and confidence level of the first responder i.e., the security guard hold key to the success of the operation at the grass root level. The degree of ownership displayed and risk appetite demonstrated to depend upon the motivation and inspiration drawn from his trainer. The established system of reward and recognition in the company to enhance the level of motivation to security guards. Conclusion The score of high profile fire accidents during this year in Delhi-NCR and elsewhere in India has drawn the attention of the concerned authorities that resulted in the tightening of rules and regulations. However, the continuous pressure needs to be kept to ensure compliance. We in the APS Group take pride to state that our clientele has benefitted at large and ensured their premises are safe and secure through the dedicated team efforts of APS training team by ensuring regular fire safety inspections, fire safety audits, conceptualizing of building evacuation plans, ERT training, and…

The Delhi chapter of the Enterprise IT World and Infosec Foundation’s Security Symposium and Awards 2019 has been successfully concluded. The event is a series of 4 city CISO events aimed at initiating discussions on the security questions among the security leaders in the metro cities – Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, and Mumbai. The theme for this year’s Security Symposium is ‘Zero Trust Security: Capitalizing on the Adoption Wave.’ At a time when cybersecurity breaches have become a contributor to the economic crisis in India, a platform like this allows the stakeholders to come together and discuss ways to control and mitigate the economic impact of cybercrime. The series of events saw a huge turnout wherein the security leaders came in and participated in panel discussions on topics like ‘Protecting Your Company and Your Customers from Cyber Attacks,’ and ‘Why a Zero-Trust Approach Can Make the Cloud More Secure.’ The Delhi chapter, Security Symposium, held at Hotel Le-Meridian on 9th August, was inaugurated by Lt. Gen Rajesh Pant (Retd.), Chief of National Cyber Coordination Centre; Dr. Pawan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court; Ms Orly Naomi Goldschmidt Gartner, First Secretary (Public Diplomacy), Israel Embassy; Sanjay Mohapatra, Group Editor, Enterprise IT World; and Sushobhan Mukherjee, Chairman, InfoSec Foundation and CEO – Prime Infoserv. In his inaugural address, Lt Gen Rajesh Pant (Retd.) said, “Cybercrime is taking away 2.5 percent of the GDP. In a tight microeconomic situation, the impact of cybercrime on the nation is very serious, this makes cybersecurity so crucial.” Emphasising the government’s stake on the issue, Pant said that the centre is working on a new strategy for cybersecurity that will be released early next year and will take into account the newly emerging technological threats with regards to 5G, IoT, and the likes. This new cyber security strategy is expected to set norms and standards that would help the enterprises to navigate towards a secure digital transformation. Dr. Pawan Duggal elaborated on the legal aspects of cybersecurity as prevalent in countries across the world and highlighted the areas where India’s own legal framework is lacking with respect to a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. In addition to the keynote sessions and discussions, the leading CIOs and CISOs in the enterprise market were recognized with the Cyber Sentinel Awards 2019.  

Abdullah A. M. Al-Khodari Sons Company is a multifaceted contracting company in Saudi Arabia. This company conducts business in diverse sectors such as civil engineering, roads and bridges, railways, buildings and infrastructure, water and waste-water treatment, oil-gas and pipelines. It has 25 construction sites across the Middle East. Managing time-attendance, shifts, overtime and leave of 20,000 employees at different locations was a challenging process for them, and they wanted a centralized time-attendance solution that would enable them to manage attendance data from a central location and speed up the payroll process. Challenges Al-Khodari is engaged in widespread construction activities with 60 construction sites in the Middle East. Managing time-attendance, shifts, leave and overtime of 20,000 employees at different locations is a very time consuming and tedious task. Previously, the customer was using hand geometry solution, which was very time-consuming. Workers also found it difficult to place their palms in the proper position. Managing time-attendance data of all employees on a central level was also becoming difficult for the company. Furthermore, the head office was using a different time-attendance solution in comparison to other sites. The head office processed the salary of employees after receiving an attendance summary from each of their branches. The process of salary calculation with respect to working hours and overtime of each employee took around 10 days. Moreover, there were chances that the attendance data was inaccurate, leading to loss of efficiency and employee dissatisfaction. To overcome such challenges, the company required a centralized time-attendance and access control solution which could be managed and controlled from the head office. Solution After discussing all of their problems and requirements Matrix offered web based COSEC CENTRA time-attendance and access control solution for their multi located branches across the Middle East. It automated all time-attendance processes right from recording entries to processing salaries. COSEC CENTRA access control solution allows controlling access on three simultaneous dimensions – user, zone and time. Optical fingerprint-based time-attendance and access control terminal COSEC DOOR FOP was installed to mark the attendance and get access using fingerprint credentials. As per assigned access rules and time-attendance policies, access is allowed or denied, and event data would be pushed from all devices to the COSEC CENTRA server in real-time. COSEC CENTRA server is installed at the head office where attendance data of all locations is collected centrally. Various types of time-attendance reports and charts can be generated for faster and accurate salary calculation. Results The time required for salary calculation reduced by 30%. Productivity increased by 20%. Control of all sites through a live monitoring window. Error-free time-attendance and overtime data. Database management of all employees. Centralized report generation.  

Secureye, one of the leading security and surveillance solutions providers in both commercial and residential space, has recently launched 4G Wi-Fi outdoor camera with advanced tech integrations for the common users. The model SIP-2HDG-W40 is equipped with the latest path breaking technologies to keep the homes safe and secure. It is equipped with motion detection alarm, APP remote monitoring, intelligent Wi-Fi configurations, 24/7 monitoring capabilities and huge storage space; thus, making it the go to product for any consumer looking to ensure their safety. The home security space has evolved so much over the years that every bit of tech integration upgrades the whole ecosystem by many notches. Manish Agarwal, Director, Secureye said, “Home security is a prime concern for everyone. The product offerings from Secureye are built keeping in mind the tech innovations in the industry so that we can outdo the products available in the market. Our offerings are not just good but are always ahead of its peers. We hope that the cost-effective home solutions will keep everyone smiling without the threat of an untoward incident.” The video surveillance market which is growing at 10.5% CAGR is already over Rs.5000 crore in India. Fueled by the infra growth in both commercial and residential space the market is going to see lots of tractions in the demand for surveillance equipment.