Next Tuesday is Valentine's Day. I don't know that I can put any sort of security-related significance on that, other than to say that those of you working long hours at the security office or installing video systems better remember to get your sweetie something special. But wait, there is actually a security aspect to this year's Valentine's day. It turns out that Starbucks Corporation is...

I'm starting a new tradition in The Executive Suite, the Friday Funnies! It's a quick collection of a few humorous stories I've compiled each week -- sometimes security-related, sometimes just something funny as we head into the weekend. For the inagural edition of the Friday Funnies, I will start with the ultimate in dedication for any social media guru (hopefully, like yourself). I received an...

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."  These very powerful words were mandated in 1966 by the United States Supreme Court (384 U.S. 436). In...

Phones enabled with wireless Near Field Communications (NFC) technology are already gaining speed in the marketplace as access control and other platforms utilize its advantages for mainstream deployment. Here’s what Raj Venkat, vice president of Marketing for Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, Carmel, Ind., had to say on the topic. “Near-Field Communication, or NFC, provides simplified...

Women of the Year awards—call for nominations The Women’s Security Council’s (WSC) Women of the Year Awards deadline has been extended until January 31, 2012. Nominate your colleague today!! There is no cost to enter. The WSC Women of the Year Award recipients will be honored during ISC West 2012 in Las Vegas at WSC’s Awards Reception, profiled in the special April 2012 eWSC awards...

Over the past several weeks, SIW has extensively covered retail security in the wake of this year’s Black Friday sales. The behavior of shoppers during these sales events has become even more abhorrent in recent years, but what we’ve discovered is that while some incidents that occur inside stores grab most of the headlines, in reality, many of the most dangerous crimes occur in store...

Much like the coaching staffs he is charged to protect, New Orleans deputy mayor Lt. Colonel Jerry Sneed, USMC retired, says that good game preparation is the key to success. Speaking as a keynote at the second annual National Sports Safety and Security conference, Sneed, who became New Orleans' first director of Office of Emergency Preparedness and director of Homeland Security following the...

I originally posted this February 8, 2009 on my Microsoft blog and thought I should share it here. I really became interested in RFID after reading RFID Toys back in 2002. Amal Graafstra the author and I have been friends ever since, though Amal travels constantly to work with clients both nationally and internationally. The thing that really caught my attention was the RFID chips that Amal...

This is my first blog posting ever. For those of you who don't know me, I am a lawyer specializing in the electronic security and life safety industries. You can check me out on my law firm's web page . My practice is devoted to representing electronic security and life safety providers coast-to-coast. Since I started out as an industry lawyer defending an alarm company in a multiple...

 Storage is a big part of IP video security and so I thought I would start a small series of video storage starting with the basics.  Today we will discuss RAID.  RAID has been discussed many (x4) times throughout the years but I still get questions about it.  What is it, what is the best choice for RAID for my VMS, etc.  So here we go. There are 4 major types of RAID 0, 1, 5...

Recently, following on New York City Transit’s theme, See Something, Say Something, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the kickoff of a broader federal program to enlist the public in helping to identify suspicious people and events to provide another barrier to terrorism and other criminal activity on public transportation. She made the announcement in New York’s Penn Station, the...