5 things to know before buying a thermal camera system – Security-Net Blog

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By Jamie Bumgardner, Prime Communications, Inc.

Thermal cameras have been a hot topic in the security industry as of late, as more and more businesses look to invest in solutions that can screen employees and customers for an elevated temperature before they enter a building. Thermal cameras are being used as one of many tools and protocols to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, since an elevated temperature is one of the most common symptoms of the virus.

Over the past few months, numerous companies have raced to develop and launch thermal camera solutions for the security industry. While hospitals, casinos, restaurants and even schools are among those who have already made the investment in this technology, facility executives and security directors should take into consideration the following as part of the buying and evaluation process of thermal imaging cameras.

Look at the accuracy rate of the device and how frequently the camera needs to be calibrated. Does the camera use a black body device, which helps to maintain accuracy when measuring the temperature of a person’s forehead or inner canthus? Also, the black body device should arrive fully calibrated and should only need to be recalibrated every few months.
Is the camera an FDA approved medical device? The FDA has issued guidelines on the use of “telethermographic systems.” An FDA approved thermal imaging camera meets IEC standards, which dictate accuracy rate and throughput guidelines, such as screening only one individual at a time.
How will the thermal data be stored? This is a question that needs to be addressed in order to ensure privacy and data security rules are followed, such as GDPR and California’s CCPA rule. Much like video collected and stored as part of a VMS system, data collected as part of a thermal imaging camera scan also requires privacy protection measures.
Many businesses will test and try out a new keypad, IP camera or access control reader before making that purchase. The same approach should be taken with thermal imaging cameras. Work closely with your security systems integrator to thoroughly vet and test the technology prior to buying it.
What’s the long-term value of this camera to your business or organization? Do you expect to be able to use this camera post-COVID as part of your company’s surveillance program or will it go into the closet waiting for the next pandemic? Make sure you have a plan in place for what you do with these thermal imaging cameras post-pandemic.

As people look to return to work and to school, consider collaborating with your systems integrator partner about which safety protocols and technologies, like thermal imaging cameras, you can put into place to help to make that transition possible.

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Why now is the ideal time to make security improvements at your workspace – Security-Net Blog

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By David Alessandrini, Pasek Corporation

The work from home movement continues, with much of corporate America postponing the full reopening of offices as part of efforts to help stop the spread of COVID-19. As a result, office occupancy numbers remain low compared to pre-pandemic rates.

This scenario – with many offices remaining virtually empty – provides an ideal opportunity for corporations to make improvements within their facilities, such as security and HVAC upgrades or workspace and traffic pattern reconfigurations.

For near empty facilities, one of the greatest advantages of tackling a security project now – whether to install new surveillance cameras or touchless door openers – is that noise and infringing on working employees is less of an issue.

Security integrators often work closely with customers to map out an installation timeline to ensure as little impact as possible on employees or customers inside a building. An occupied building can limit when, where and how an integrator can install or repair systems, with work often getting pushed to the evening or weekend to minimize disruption. This can turn a project into a more expensive job because it now requires overtime pay for the security technician.

With fewer people in offices these days, contractors gain more access to the building since their movement and work is less likely to disrupt business operations. Employees working at their desk are not impacted when a technician runs wire through ceiling tiles, for example. Entrances that would need to remain open to accommodate employees coming and going to work can now be taken offline during regular business hours to install hands-free entrance solutions.

As a result, end users are finding that projects are being completed within a shorter period of time. This, in turn, can result in an overall cost savings for the project.

Reduced occupancy numbers also create a safer environment for everyone, limiting contact and interaction with others as people continue to follow social distancing guidelines. While many businesses have adopted procedures to screen visitors, such as temperature checks when someone enters a facility, lower occupancy numbers support a safer environment for contractors as well.

As companies postpone reopening offices, now is the time to plan for the future. Nearly empty workspaces enable contractors of all types to complete projects in a timely, and less disruptive fashion, enabling corporate America to lay the groundwork to welcome back employees in what many hope will be the not too distant future.

This post was originally published on the Security-Net blog.

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The Role of Security in a COVID World – Security-Net Blog

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by John Krumme, CPP, Cam-Dex Security

How security is minimizing COVID-19 risk

We all know the benefits of a comprehensive security solution and program. Protecting people and assets has been priority number one for those associated with the security industry since its inception. The industry has accomplished this by developing new technologies and safety programs that help to keep unwanted visitors off a property and to proactively identify and alert authorities of an intruder.

Now, the security industry is finding itself in new territory and this includes helping to minimize health risks in a COVID-19 world. Technology originally developed to watch people entering and exiting an area is now being used to detect elevated temperatures. Access control systems developed with leading edge technology in mind, such as mobile credentials, are now recognized as touchless access control solutions that so many corporations and universities demand today.

As we look ahead to the future and move beyond just protecting people and assets, here are a few considerations relating to new ways that security technology is being leveraged.

Thermal Imaging Cameras

Thermal imaging camera technology has been part of the security industry for at least two decades. Using heat mapping technology, it has proved valuable to help identify individuals entering a predefined area at night when lighting conditions may make it difficult to detect a person using traditional surveillance cameras. However, until recently, their deployment has been limited primarily to military applications, perimeter protection and usage for high security areas.

Now, casinos, restaurants, and even hospitals are starting to deploy thermal imaging camera systems as part of their first line of defense to detect elevated temperatures. These specially designed cameras, which can detect a specific temperature in a person, are helping businesses to quickly screen customers and visitors using a method that requires minimal direct human contact with that visitor.

Security directors who are looking at implementing this technology are also considering future benefits. This includes developing a comprehensive Prevention Plan. The thermal imaging camera can be integrated to monitor and report social distancing. By integrating these cameras with other security technologies, you can maximize effectiveness, including responding more rapidly to the real-time data provided.

Touchless Entry

As more people look to limit the number of surfaces they touch when they enter a building, whether it’s the office, grocery story or school building, access control systems that support touchless entry has received additional attention over these few months.

Companies are investing in automatic door opening systems that integrate with a Proximity card reader or mobile credentials. While traditionally used for high traffic areas – such as entrances into large retail stores or large medical centers – automatic door entry systems eliminate the need for a person to touch a door handle to enter an area.

Leveraging touchless solutions, such as mobile credentials, instead of a keypad or biometric fingerprint system, minimizes contact with a specific security device. This is an important consideration moving forward, especially since the entrance into secure areas may be used by dozens of people in a given day.

Restricting Access

While managing access – who can come and go within a specific area – has been a focus for the security industry, corporations are looking at incorporating additional parameters into their access control systems. This includes restricting access to specific floors in a building for employees. Previously if a person worked at a business that individual may have been able to move around the building more freely. Working in conjunction with the elevator control system, that employee may only be permitted to exit the elevator on his designated floor.

In addition, access control systems are being used to help monitor the number of people within a specific area. For example, if the office lunchroom has a limited capacity of five people, access would be restricted until another individual badges out of that area.

Without a doubt, security technology has evolved over the years, incorporating new capabilities once never imagined possible. Now, due to COVID-19 the industry is finding itself in a new, expanded position, adding value not just to security but also to public health and safety.

This post was originally published on the Security-Net blog.

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The New Security Buzzword – Touchless Security – Security-Net Blog

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By Dominic Burns, AC Technical Systems Ltd.

Much of what people do on a daily basis involves touching hundreds of items without thought – we turn a door knob to open a door, touch a keypad to type on a computer and push elevator buttons to close the door and select a floor. Until recently, people didn’t have to worry about these simple actions, as they didn’t pose a potential health and safety risk.

As COVID-19 has changed how we do interact with people, eliminating hand shaking and promoting social distancing, it has also impacted our desire, or lack thereof, to touch things. As a result, the security industry is seeing greater emphasis being placed on implementing solutions that can support a touchless security experience – eliminating the unnecessary transfer of germs between surfaces and people.

Few people leave their home without their mobile phone in their pocket or purse. While mobile credentialing has slowly grown over the past few years, this technology is expected to increase considerably. Mobile credentials discourage the practice of sharing of proximity cards between employees, such as when someone may forget their card at home and cannot gain access into the company parking lot. It also enables companies to more easily monitor and manage access privileges, eliminating the need for in-person interaction to issue a new security badge.

Automatic doors are the norm for many large-scale retailers, such as grocery stores and big box chains, but this security technology will now trickle down to include smaller business types. Security directors are investing in magnetic door strikes to turn once manually operated doors into automatic, whether it’s connected to an access control reader or via an automatic door sensor.

While many building entrance doors are currently equipped with a handicap button to automate opening and closing to be ADA Compliant, this function will soon move to incorporate completely touch free solutions. Touchless buttons will replace the large touchpad, requiring a person to only wave a hand in front of the button to activate the door.

Keypads are perhaps the most commonly used access control solution, due in part to the low-cost nature of these systems and the flexibility to scale up based on needs. However, due to COVID-19, many businesses do not currently want to leverage a system that requires people to push multiple buttons. As an alternative, businesses have begun to invest in a cover that can be placed over the keypad and then turn the keypad into a card reader and a touchless access solution.

The security industry is adapting to the new security norms, and market demands. Security directors are driving a market shift that now includes implementing new solutions designed to facilitate a touchless security experience.

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Looking to the Future of Access Control

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By Eva Mach

When we think of access control, the first thing that comes to mind for most is a badge that gives entry to authorized individuals. There is, of course, technology behind it, but compared to the rest of the industry it may seem that access control is lacking as far as innovation and new solutions go. However, what many do not realize are the growing number of solutions now available to end users, and wireless access and mobile credentials are part of this evolution.

The widespread development and increasing adoption of wireless access and mobile credentials have opened the door to future development. Looking more deeply, there is far more innovation happening that goes beyond a door simply opening. For example, Apple is running a prototype using Apple Pay and iPhones on college campuses. By connecting user’s phones to access control portals, there is a possibility to integrate the access control system with other systems. In this case, your wallet.

Access control options that are being adopted more widely on campuses include wireless locks. Wireless locks are replacing legacy locks, in turn allowing multiple wireless enabled devices and locks to communicate between each other. Criteria and conditions can be set, such as doors only being accessible to certain students on a college campus during certain times of day (i.e. class times). With editable criteria like this, security professionals on a campus or any other sector can ensure only the right people will have access to areas at the right time, including vendors making a delivery to an office or second shift employees for a warehouse.

While wireless connections make things easier and more controllable, there is concern involving the cyber security of these systems. Many end users in high security areas opt for multi-factor authentication rather than just knowledge of a pin or presenting a badge to enter a premise. A pin might be the first level of security, but a more advanced access control system could also require users to present an access control credential, including biometrics. The beauty of the innovation in access control is that it can be as simple or as complex as the user requires.

Overall, by opting for a wireless access control system, end users are given more flexibility, data backup and risk mitigation. There has not been a lot of new areas in access control for many years, but that has begun to change with the introduction of managed services with a cyber security emphasis along with blue tooth enabled devices that provide a better user experience more secure environment and ease of use for the security personnel.

This, along with increasing adoption of wireless and mobile credentials, is giving the industry an opportunity to bring access control to the forefront when talking about risk management. In addition, the deployment of sensors and analytics will allow the end users to gather information about comfort level within a building resulting in better customer experience and cost savings through adjusting the use of power.

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Defining Cloud-based Solutions

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By Bill Hogan

Cloud-based security solutions have been all the buzz in the industry for the past year, with many video surveillance and access control manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon to introduce their latest cloud-based offering to the market.

As the number of products called cloud-based increases, as a security professional have you ever wondered what defines a true cloud solution and how does one determine the difference between a solution that claims to be cloud based from one that really is?

While many security manufacturers state they offer a cloud-based solution, the reality is that very few, an estimated four percent, are a true cloud-based solution. A true cloud-based solution is defined as one that offers a fully scalable architecture that not only lives in the cloud but was also born in the cloud. It can be accessed from anywhere, any device and on any modern web browser.

For example, social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, are cloud-based solutions. So too is Netflix, even though it requires an app to provide intellectual property protection on mobile devices. A majority of true cloud based solutions require that little to no software be installed on client devices.

It’s time for security professionals to start to pay attention to cloud-base solutions because the benefits far outweigh the downsides. For example, both small and large companies have the ability to seamlessly scale up their systems with a cloud-based solution. It can be timely, costly and a painful experience to take down every server, upgrade servers, update field panels and put them back online every time a new software version is released. A well-designed cloud-based solution using AI (Artificial Intelligence) can initiate an update once every two weeks, eliminating downtime and the expensive cost often associated with system upgrades.

Cloud-based architecture should enable a single database to span across the entire product for every client, which ensures product version control. Every client is then on the same version and has access to the same firmware / software version.

Cloud-based video storage also provides added protection, ensuring that video evidence cannot be destroyed by tampering with an NVR. Once the video is pushed to the cloud, regardless of what happens to the NVR, that video has been captured and saved.

The technology market is going through a tremendous evolution, as more of the everyday solutions and devices we use in both the home and business become IT and network centric. The security industry is no different, with cloud-based solutions paving the way for more streamlined, secure, resilient and redundant systems.

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Buyer Beware: Why DIY Camera Systems Are Not Designed for Commercial Application

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By David Alessandrini

The “Do it Yourself” video security systems are all the rage in the residential market, enabling home owners to easily monitor who is coming to the front door, watch when children come home after school or to track package deliveries.

While these easy-to-deploy and use surveillance systems have introduced surveillance technology to the residential market, it’s important to remember that these systems are not suitable for enterprise and corporate level surveillance needs.

First, DIY camera systems do not allow you to switch out the camera that comes as part of the DIY surveillance kit. All components in the kit have to be by the same brand in order to work together.  This means that if you need a camera to provide clearer images at night and the cameras in your system do not do that, you are stuck with using the camera included in the box.

Second, these kit-based surveillance systems do not offer scalability. It’s important to ensure that any surveillance system installed can grow as security needs evolve and grow. Should a location need an additional camera to provide increased coverage in a parking lot, for example, many of these systems cannot accommodate even one additional camera.

Another area not typically taken into consideration is storage needs. The DIY surveillance kits often have limited storage capabilities, especially when trying to ensure that the system records usable, quality video. Many of these systems also do not provide enough storage needs to follow best practices for archiving surveillance.

Many people think that the DIY surveillance kits offer more features, but business and commercial users of these systems actually lose capabilities. Often it will also cost them more money by investing in a surveillance system that doesn’t fully meet the needs of their business.

While it may be tempting to install a DIY surveillance system, it’s best to work with a professional security systems integrator to design and install a commercial grade surveillance system customized for specific businesses’ needs.  Commercial clients have greater requirements than residential surveillance system users, where the lack of video to show a staged slip and fall incident in a parking lot can mean the difference between winning or losing a lawsuit.

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A Comprehensive Approach to Protecting University Facilities

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By Trae Padilla, Vision Security

In many ways, college campuses are much like a hospital environment because they both accommodate a large volume of people who require access to a number of public spaces.

Today, many colleges operate on a 24/7 schedule, with buildings that are open and accessible to students nearly every day of the week and into the late hours of the evening. In these situations, it’s extremely important to ensure the proper security is in place to manage access to these facilities and to monitor those that are coming and going.

Auburn University faced these challenges with its Recreation and Wellness Center, which includes numerous workout facilities, indoor sports courts, an indoor track and an outdoor pool. At more than 240,000 square feet, the center has seen as many as 6,200 visitors in a single day.

To gain access to the facility, students have to pass through a bank of turnstiles, which allows the university to keep track of the buildings overall use and specifically who is in the facility at any given time. An extensive surveillance system, with more than 120 cameras, provides full surveillance coverage inside the Recreation and Wellness Center to ensure that students are safe and to reduce theft of personal belongings.

One area proved a unique challenge to Auburn University – its outside pool. The university wanted to ensure that if someone climbed over the fence and went into the pool at off hours they would immediately be alerted. To address this issue, the university installed an audible alarm system with a pre-recorded message that would sound if someone breached the pool perimeter.

And, to help the university better identify incidents and those involved, it deployed a high-end megapixel camera with facial recognition technology in the lobby of the Recreation and Wellness Center. Now, the system can provide valuable information, such as the date and time and who was present, should an incident occur.

Securing higher education facilities is no small task, but thanks to technological advances in surveillance and perimeter security systems, colleges and universities have access to more resources than ever before to protect students and faculty.

The post A Comprehensive Approach to Protecting University Facilities appeared first on Security-Net Blog.

Source: Security-Net Blog

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Beyond Airport Security: Securing Mass Transit Facilities

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By David Sime and Hyong Cho

Mass transportation presents a special challenge when it comes to determining security issues. These facilities need to develop the means to protect a constantly changing and large population of passengers and unlike airports these facilities often have hundreds of points of entry and exit on multiple modes—buses, subways, light rail, commuter trains, even ferries.

An estimated 2 million Americans will use the nation’s airways on a given work day, while 35 million people will board some form of public transportation.

For transportation officials and their security providers, solving the mass transit security issue begins with determining the key concerns and then creating the proper responses via security systems, policies and procedures to mitigate the risks.

This includes ensuring the day-to-day safety and security of transit riders and employees and begins with creating the safest environment possible that is highlighted with appropriate signage and, when necessary, audible warnings, and supporting that with technology, such as surveillance cameras, that will document what has happened if an incident occurs.

Incidents of concern within a transit setting can take several forms, ranging from legitimate accidents or crimes to false claims such as erroneous stairway falls to potential and actual suicides. Bus and subway stations also have become magnets for homeless people who may put themselves and others in harm’s way by trying to access less secure public areas within a station as temporary shelters.

The deployment of video analytics, which can be programmed to send alerts when certain pre-set actions occur, can help determine when such dangerous behaviors come into play. Analytics can also be useful in alerting security about other suspicious behaviors at a transit stop, such as an untended bag or package or a person going into a restricted area.

By using the proper cameras and recording systems in a transit environment, quick-acting personnel can locate a person of interest who boarded a train at one station, follow him during his trip and produce a crisp, clear identifiable image at the end.

Transit security will continue to evolve, not only as new stations and modes of transportation are added, but in terms of communicating with commuters. People can expect to get mass notification alerts on their mobile devices, and those same devices can provide vital data to transportation entities to better develop their overall systems.

The post Beyond Airport Security: Securing Mass Transit Facilities appeared first on Security-Net Blog.

Source: Security-Net Blog

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