Blog Archives




 

  • Protecting against Mother Nature at sporting events
    By Joel Griffin - Friday August 10, 2012
    In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis placed on increasing security at sporting venues across the country. Whether it’s through the installation of security cameras or the use metal detectors, sports leagues want fans to know that they can feel safe when they enter through their gates and rightly so. Who wants to spend their hard-earned money, wait in long lines and sit in traffic, only then to have to worry about some overzealous fan endangering their well-being or that of their family? Security professionals at these venues obviously spend a significant amount of their time implementing technology, policies and procedures to mitigate against these physical threats. Just last fall, some NFL fans expressed concerns...

  • Is data more vulnerable in the cloud?
    By Joel Griffin - Wednesday August 8, 2012
    With ability to lighten data storage requirements on the network, more and more organizations in recent years have started using the cloud to store sensitive information. Cloud technology has been of particular interest for security professionals, given the ability it providers end-users to shift the infrastructure costs of large-scale surveillance and access control systems onto a service provider. Of course, one of the questions that has dogged the cloud industry for years and has perhaps slowed its adoption for some is exactly how secure is data in the cloud? Another question that frequently arises is who is responsible for securing data in the cloud? In an attempt to shed light on the subject, the results of a new survey conducted...

  • The proliferation of biometrics
    By Joel Griffin - Friday July 13, 2012
    Earlier this week, I wrote an article about trends in biometric security devices and when the technology could potentially reach the tipping point for the mass security market. Bojan Cukic, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at West Virginia University and site director for the Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) at WVU, believes that it is still unclear whether or not biometric solutions will replace traditional access control systems in many applications. However, Cukic does feel that biometric technology will become more commonplace in the future. "I honestly feel in five or 10 years, we will not be talking about biometrics because it will be ubiquitous," he said. "It will be part of...

  • Is 2G doomed?
    By Joel Griffin - Friday June 29, 2012
    While nearly everyone agrees that landline telephone service - or POTS (plain old telephone service) lines as many people in the industry like to refer to them as - have seen their heyday, getting dealers to make the transition from 2G-GSM cellular alarm communicators to ones that are 3G or 4G compatible has been another story altogether. One company that is trying to give dealers some extra motivation to make the switch is Telguard, a division of Telular Corporation. This week at the ESX tradeshow in Nashville, Tenn., the company had show hotels slip an information sheet about the company’s new incentive program under the door of attendees. Under the program, Shawn Welsh, vice president of marketing and business development for...

  • Battling the ORC epidemic
    By Joel Griffin - Friday June 8, 2012
    This week saw the release of two noteworthy surveys on retail crime, the results of which should be eye-opening to lawmakers and the American public. According to the 24th Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by loss prevention and shrinkage control consulting firm Hayes International, both apprehensions and recovery dollars from shoplifters and dishonest employees rose in 2011. In fact, according to the survey, which consisted of responses from 24 major retail companies with sales exceeding $589 billion, more than one million shoplifters and dishonest employees were apprehended in 2011, resulting in the recovery of more than $161 million. One particularly disturbing trend noted in the survey is that both apprehensions and recovery...

  • TrakLok helps bolster container security
    By Joel Griffin - Thursday May 31, 2012
    Though it’s not an issue that may grab many headlines around the United States or even the world, cargo theft has become a multi-billion-dollar problem for a myriad of organizations. Obviously, the retail industry has been among the hardest hit, but there are many other companies, such as those in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, that are also under intense pressure to secure their products against would-be thieves.   Looking to provide shippers of high-value goods with a better solution against cargo theft, Knoxville, Tenn.-based TrakLok Corp. was launched more than two years ago. The TrakLok solution, which has been on the market since mid-2011, is a combination lock and tracking mechanism that fits on the doors of shipping...

  • 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...

  • 'Cake cam' unveiled at ISC West
    By Joel Griffin - Thursday March 29, 2012
    Having covered the security industry for four years now, I think I'm pretty well-versed in your typical deployments for commercial video surveillance systems. Retailers, critical infrastructure and government facilities are some of the applications that come immediately to mind. I must admit, however, that I've never thought about bakeries as being good case studies for the advantages of implementing CCTV. That was until I heard Buddy Valastro, star of the TLC network's "Cake Boss," speak glowingly of how an Interlogix surveillance system has helped provide him with peace of mind. "How do cameras help a business like mine? It's a tool I can't really live without," the Carlo's Bakery owner told a throng of media members and attendees...

  • Another threat from mobile devices
    By Joel Griffin - Friday February 24, 2012
    As if there weren't enough threats to worry about when it comes to the security of mobile devices, researchers at the University of Minnesota say they have found a way to easily track the physical location of a cell phone user. According to the research findings, which were recently released in a paper and presented at the 19th Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, the vulnerability stems from cell towers that track cell phone subscribers in an effort to provide efficient service. "For example, an incoming voice call requires the network to locate that device so it can allocate the appropriate resources to handle the call," said computer science Ph.D. student Denis Foo Kune in a statement . Kune worked on...

  • More on retail parking lot security
    By Joel Griffin - Thursday December 15, 2011
    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 parking lots. These crimes are usually perpetrated by people looking to take advantage of holiday shoppers that are either flush with cash or recently purchased merchandise. Obviously, one of the best ways to curtail crime in parking lots is by having security officers patrol the premises, which not only helps to ward off potential threats, but also...

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