Blog Archives
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Photos from IFSEC 2007
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday May 22, 2007Day one pics from Security Dealer's Peter Harlick -- sent across the pond from Birmingham, England. (Click to enlarge photos.) Read the text of his report from Day One here . Â The team from Zandar Technologies Heather Russell of Lenel talks with clients An installer competes in the IFSEC Apprentice Challenge Ed Davis of American Fibertek with customers IQinVision's new Sentinel system Ritto Chandna with more of the crew from Security Dynamics The crew representing Samsung Electronics Norbain's lasses InitSys showcasing its love to fight crime The English apparently love their French Maids... ...So much so that they had two crews across... -
A Ceiling for Megapixel Surveillance?
By Geoff Kohl - Friday May 18, 2007How many megapixels do you need? I got a note from the UK version of the IP UserGroup this morning promoting one of their clients that will be at IFSEC next week. The company, SentryScope, apparently has a 21 megapixel camera. If you want a sense of how high or a resolution that is, then consider this -- if you record at their highest level, you could eat up 100 Gigabytes of storage a day doing continuous recording. The camera's image is a black-and-white panorama with an aspect ratio of 5:1. This is basically what you'd see (you can zoom in of course, because there's plenty of data detail): So I'm sitting here thinking about when you really need that much detail. Obviously, as one of our columnists wrote earlier this year, these... -
People are the critical infrastructure
By Geoff Kohl - Friday May 11, 2007Sometimes we get caught up in technology-centric security. We talk about high-tech systems that integrate access and video, and which allow for integrated alarm event management. We talk megapixels and gigahertz and VPNs and thumbdrives and PKIs and DVRs. We talk about critical infrastructure and think about powerplants and major utilities systems, ports and the things that make our world move. But I'll posit that your people are the critical infrastructure . I was reminded of that core notion when talking with a friend of mine who is in Kandahar. Now Kandahar, Afghanistan, isn't the friendliest place in the world. In fact, most would probably place it in the top 10 of most unfriendly places to be. It's the kind of place where attackers... -
Paying hackers to do their work
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 27, 2007Sometimes the world of security is just too funny. I wanted to share with you a little touch on a recent hacker event to crack a Macintosh computer. Now before you go, oh, he's a Mac head, keep in mind that I'm agnostic to the OS. Actually, out of my home, I'm running a Linux server, 3 PCs and 1 Mac that has probably outlived its time. I see the weaknesses in all these machines, but this little story just cracked me up. In a note to a friend who is interested in all things 'computer', and who works as an occassional Macintosh computer tech (what can I say? He's into video production, and the Macs seem to have a stronghold there), I relay a funny little press release: Â >To: MacDudeinAtlanta > From: Geoff >I thought you... -
Laptops that go “poof†in the night
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 13, 2007It's 3:57 a.m. and two thieves, Elroy and Leroy, just smashed in the back window of one of your remote offices. Using the bare minimum of lights left on when the cleaning crew left hours ago, they're in your business looking for things they can easily resell on the street to get a little money for a bad meth habit. In your office, Elroy spots two things that grab his eye: 1) a 50-inch plasma screen that your engineers use when demonstrating your newest whiz-bang technology and 2) a laptop left in an unlocked filing cabinet in an unlocked office. He's got to make a choice quickly on what to grab; he knows that thanks to your contract for alarm system monitoring, the police are probably only 15 minutes away. If the pair slugs that plasma... -
Improving the Interface
By Geoff Kohl - Friday April 6, 2007Coming back from tradeshows like ISC West, where I get to ask a lot of questions, the tables are inevitably turned and I get asked a lot of questions about what I was really impressed by. The usual answer, of course, is that it's difficult to immediately peg a "most impressive" winner, because I see everything from alarm panels to cameras, biometrics, complex situational awareness software platforms and even tools to help pull wires through walls. Yet sometimes it's easy to peg an impressive trend. A year ago, I'd have said "IP cameras" without a moment's hesitation.Let's be honest, our industry's products are pretty far ahead of the curve. Say "facial recognition biometrics" to some of your industry peers, and they nod their heads. But... -
ISC West 2007 Photo Dump - part 3
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday April 3, 2007Jason, an NBFAA staff member and top-notch photo journalist, sent us in these great photos of the Tuesday daytime outings that the organization held. Golf without Guilt raises money for industry organizational needs, and the Skeet Shoot (complete with raffle for a very nice shotgun provided by the Tennessee chapter of the NBFAA) was a new event with a good turnout. Participants of both events reported brutally cold conditions that were fairly atypical for Vegas during the time of the NBFAA Spring Conference/ISC West, but these hardened men and women braved the elements for some fun. Want to be involved with the NBFAA? Head over to alarm.org . Paul Carroll of the Central Signal Corporation, George Gunning, president of NBFAA and... -
ISC West 2007 Photo Dump - part 2
By Geoff Kohl - Monday April 2, 2007Chris Cage, NBFAA Weinstock award recipient Cage with his family receiving the NBFAA's most prestigious award Greg Kessinger (right) receives the Jackson award from Paul Baran (the 2006 winner) during the NBFAA's Tuesday night "Evening Event". Jet Rack -- ladder management systems and tools for installers Installation and hardware equipment for security systems installers at the Dottie booth Friendly faces at Honeywell's Fire Systems booth The "Real Man's" security installation competition ST&D's Steve Lasky with Kevin Wine of Lenel Selling the Napco Freedom 64 alarm system -- no codes for these women! Phil Mantia of StopWare demonstrates a comprehensive visitor management... -
ISC West 2007 Photo Dump - part 1
By Geoff Kohl - Monday April 2, 2007It's Monday and the Cygnus Security Group (SecurityInfoWatch.com, Security Technology & Design magazine, Security Dealer magazine, Locksmith Ledger magazine) is back at the offices after a mix of red-eye flights. With ISC West 2007 fresh in our minds, it was time to download the pictures off the memory cards and offer an ISC West 2007 photo dump. From surveillance cameras to innovative access control, we saw it all! Check out more ISC West 2007 coverage from SIW on our ISC West page . Vegas in the morning -- before most gamblers and tradeshow attendees are awake. The strip has a quiet beauty in the morning as the sun starts to rise. More quietness: shuffling through the show floor before the doors are open -- every booth... -
Relocating the Apps and Data for Security
By Geoff Kohl - Friday March 9, 2007Google, that little search engine that could, is app happy. Bear with me -- I'll relate this to security technology in a minute. Not content with becoming the dominant web search engine, or with making what is arguably the best online mapping interface (so good that it took Yahoo! almost a year to copy it), nor content with the fact that it now owns the biggest video sharing site on the Net (YouTube), Google decided to go after the biggest dog in the pack. I'm speaking of Microsoft, of course. Google's big announcement of this week was its " Google Apps " -- an online services package that delivers common business software like word processing and spreadsheets over the web, rather than having the software in a traditional format where it...
