Blog Archives
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End users ‘tell-all’ about integrators
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Wednesday May 9, 2012Just what does the end user look for in a systems integration firm? Is it all product and technical input? I’d have to say a resounding ‘no’ based on a number of factors. You can find out more about this topic in the May issue of SD&I magazine, due out in digital edition on May 18 th with print copies hitting mailboxes shortly afterwards. But look for two articles that address the topic, the Insider Intelligence column by PSA Security Network President and CEO Bill Bozeman and my editorial as well. Bozeman said that so many times salespeople lead with the latest widget when they visit a prospect—and never even ask about what the end-user is looking for in security and detection! And my insights come from my recent ASIS... -
Is your employee background screening process illegal?
By Eric Pritchard - Tuesday May 8, 2012
If you use criminal background checks in your hiring decisions, you’re in the majority – 92 percent of employers subject job candidates to criminal backgrounds investigations. And usually for good reasons; to combat theft and fraud, address concerns about workplace violence, and meet state and local laws, like licensing requirements or those requiring background checks for particular positions. Whether you can make personnel decisions based on a criminal record often presents a complicated legal issue that implicates state and federal law. A new set of guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) indicates that an employer’s good reason to employ criminal background checks may not be enough. If you have... -
Incident command lessons from the FBI
By Geoff Kohl - Friday May 4, 2012
Chris Swecker, a 24-year veteran of the FBI and former head of corporate security for Bank of America (2006-2009), took the stage this week at Interactions 2012, a conference held in Nashville for users of NICE Systems. His presentation ranged from the impact of "big data" on security to the changes in the intelligence community since 9/11 and even the value of specialized analysts for corporate security, but one of his main messages was the value of a structured incident command approach. Chris knows a thing or two about incident command, drawing on his tenure as Former Acting Executive Assistant Director for the FBI at the peak of his federal career. It was a career that included many notable incidents and events to manage, from suicide... -
9 urban security and video technology lessons from Secured Cities
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 27, 2012
A week ago, we concluded the Secured Cities conference in Chicago, Ill. The conference brings together law enforcement and technology leaders from urban areas, cities, towns and transit agencies for two days of education about topics such as using police crime cameras, creating transit-wide surveillance systems, homeland security, technology-based policing and more. In this week's blog post, I want to share a few take-aways from the conference to the broader security industry. The conference has been my project for a couple years now, having founded it in Atlanta in 2011, and it’s continued to grow – far beyond its initial focus solely on city video surveillance (although that is still a dominant topic at the conference). As... -
Virginia Tech’s impact on campus security
By Joel Griffin - Friday April 20, 2012
There are certain profound events that take place during the course of life that you will always remember where you were and what you were doing at that specific moment. I’m sure most everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. That happened to be the first semester of my freshman year in college. I had built a break into my schedule that fall so that I could grab a bite of breakfast and study after an early morning class I had. I was standing in the cafeteria line buying a smoothie when the woman behind the register asked me if I had heard that an airplane had struck one of the Twin Towers. Initially, I shrugged the news off, thinking that it was probably the misfortune of a pilot of some... -
Security lessons from pulling wires
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 13, 2012
I've been turning off the computer at night and working on my almost 100-year-old house doing some remodeling. One of the projects I've been doing is updating the electrical. It turns out that in the 1920s, they used a wiring method called knob and tube. This was long before the days of NM-B/Romex. The wiring was ungrounded and a positive and a neutral were run separately, about one foot apart, and wrapped in old wire insulation that seems to be made of natural materials, and which is extremely brittle. The "knob" was a porcelain clamps that kept the wire about an inch off the joists and which was also used for making 90-degree turns in the wiring. The "tube" was a porcelain tubes that allowed wiring to run through joist holes without... -
Inside the NPS
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Thursday April 12, 2012For more than five years I’ve been a judge for SIA’s New Product Showcase (NPS) and I wanted to share my insights into the program, which has grown and blossomed into one of the best-known security industry innovation awards programs. This is thanks in large part to hard work by all the participants, a credo to be fair and unbiased and a commitment to furthering the industry by presenting accolades to those products that ultimately assist the integrators and end users with pertinent solutions for their market. This year, we had quite a few new judges participating, because the NPS process is extremely time-consuming and people change jobs and positions. All judges must sign an affidavit of no conflicts of interest and follow the... -
The numbers behind the disappearance of landlines
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday April 10, 2012
There are more indications that the days of landlines/POTS/plain-old-telephone-service are numbered, including these statistics from a CNN.com article : "Verizon's landline revenue has fallen 19% since 2007, and AT&T's is down 16.5% over same period." And this, from the same article: "Nearly 32% of American homes are now cell phone-only households -- double the rate from 2008 and nearly triple that of 2007, according to a recent government study ." It's not a surprise in this industry at all. How many of your new alarm system installs are communicating over cellular, proprietary wireless, or IP? -
Copper theft statistics
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday April 10, 2012
We received this great little report put together by the team over at Supercircuits in regards to the theft of copper metal. It's based on a new report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Here's what Supercircuits' report had to say -- and then make sure you check out the full infographic on copper theft today. "Since August 2009, metal thefts have steadily increased across the nation, driven by rising prices for base metals… especially copper. Whether the theft is an expensive personal irritant, like finding your catalytic converter has been stolen, or one that threatens public safety, as when the theft of copper wiring blacked out runway approach lights at the Modesto, CA, regional airport—metal thefts are increasing in... -
Don't count analog out yet.
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 6, 2012
I love IP. At my last home, I didn't even run phone lines, I just put in a Cisco network and Ethernet ports to every room and whole house 802.11 wireless. My video system there used a few off-brand IP cameras and network attached storage. It was pretty rudimentary, but the point is I love IP. So it's hard for me to say this, but I need to say it. Don't count analog video out yet. OK, it maybe be a flat technology area with no forecast for growth, but it's still the big part of the market. There are still plenty of dealers we know that tell us they are sticking with analog video because they can trust it and don't have to deal with networking issues. They know how to do it, and it works. I would still argue that they need to be preparing...
