Blog Archives
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Gearing up for Black Friday
By Joel Griffin - Monday November 21, 2011This week, people across the country will show up hours before retailers open their doors (and in some cases will even camp out) to take part in the annual day after Thanksgiving sales phenomenon that has become known as Black Friday. Many retailers this year, however, are not waiting until Friday to hold these special sales, opting instead to hold them Thanksgiving night. One Target worker has even started an online petition aimed at persuading the retail giant to remain closed on the holiday. I have to admit, my wife and I used to partake in these sales until one day a couple of years ago we decided that the money saved was not worth the time and hassle. The items we targeted were usually gone by the time we made it through the... -
The megapixel boom
By Joel Griffin - Thursday September 29, 2011In recent years as the shift towards IP technology has become more commonplace, camera vendors appear to be attempting to differentiate themselves from the rest of the market by offering better image resolution. During last week’s ASIS conference in Orlando, I had the chance to stop by the Avigilon booth to check out the company’s new 29-megapixel camera . According to Keith Marett, the company’s director of marketing and communications, Avigilon has offered a 16-megapixel camera model for the last three years that has sold well, but he said the company didn’t want to stand pat with its current technology. For many surveillance applications, some argue that any camera over 1.3 megapixels is overkill, however, the... -
More on video alarms
By Joel Griffin - Tuesday August 9, 2011Last month, SIW took a look at how police departments across the nation are implementing prioritized response policies for video alarms in an effort to reduce false dispatches and increase their capture rates. Most jurisdictions are reliant upon monitoring companies notifying their 911 dispatch centers when suspicious activity is caught on camera at a protected property. Several municipalities in Texas, however, have implemented a unique video monitoring model with the help of a company called Stealth Monitoring. In cities such as Addison and Irving, Stealth Monitoring has setup a dedicated computer inside their respective dispatch centers to stream live video of incidents. According to Addison Chief of Police Ron Davis , one of... -
Disasters highlight the importance of business continuity plans
By Joel Griffin - Monday June 13, 2011So far this year we’ve seen numerous natural disasters both at home and abroad. In March, a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake struck the coastline of Japan, killing thousands or people and displacing hundreds of thousands more. The crisis worsened in the following days after it was discovered that the tsunami destroyed fuel rod cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Over the past several weeks, tornados have wreaked devastation over portions of the South and Midwest. According to Reuters , more than 500 people have been killed by tornados so far this year in the U.S. Last month, I spoke with healthcare security expert Steve Wilder about the role of hospital security managers in the aftermath of disasters... -
What went wrong in the Sony PlayStation network breach?
By Joel Griffin - Monday May 9, 2011Last month, Sony announced that its' PlayStation online gaming network was victimized by a cyber hacker, who may have been able to gain access to the credit card information of 77 million users. Just last week, Sony said that the breach was worse than previously thought , as the company revealed that the accounts of nearly 25 million more users may have also been compromised, bringing the total of affected users to more than 100 million. Online data breaches are not a new phenomenon. Since the Internet's inception, there have been people dedicated to using at it tool for their own personal gain, breaking in and stealing the financial and personal information of businesses' employees, partners and customers. Many of these breaches can... -
What patients think of healthcare IT security
By Joel Griffin - Thursday March 3, 2011Earlier this week, CDW Healthcare released the results of a new survey about patient's perceptions of IT security in the healthcare industry as hospitals and doctors move to adopt electronic health records (EHRs). The Obama administration announced a five-year plan last year calling for the healthcare industry to implement electronic medical records in an effort to increase the safety of patient information and lower costs. Of the 1,000 U.S. adults who participated in the survey, entitled "CDW Healthcare Elevated Heart Rates: EHR and IT Security Report," 49 percent believed that the move to EHRs would have a "significantly" or "somewhat" negative effect on the privacy of personal information and health data. Only 27 percent believed... -
How secure are your IP camera networks?
By Joel Griffin - Wednesday January 19, 2011More and more, IP cameras are replacing aging, analog-based CCTV systems. The benefits are numerous. What business would not want to have the capability to tie cameras across their entire organization into one centralized location? But as more security installations have migrated to IP, it has opened up questions about the security of IP networks themselves. No one wants a hacker to be able to access their CCTV system and view footage that was supposed to remain private. In an age when it's almost impossible to keep a lid on confidential messages (just do a Google news search for "WikiLeaks"), the evolution of IP technology may have opened a window for prying eyes on the Internet. Tom Connor details how he was able to use Internet... -
Are your networks harboring botnets?
By Joel Griffin - Monday December 6, 2010We've done a lot of reporting here at SIW lately about IT security and how it's impacting businesses and governments. Of course, the threats are numerous and have varying degrees of impact. Gone are the days when these threats only posed a minor nuisance to business operations. Indeed, the burgeoning industry of virus and malware writing is now a full fledged criminal enterprise perpetrated with an ever increasing level of sophistication. "It's an entire industry. The malware is really very, very sophisticated," said Martin Lee, senior software engineer for Symantec Hosted Services. "Long gone are the days when people writing viruses were anti-social teenagers in a bedroom." While a criminal may not care whose computers are... -
HDcctv Alliance builds momentum
By Joel Griffin - Friday November 12, 2010One month ago today, I was walking the show floor at ASIS 2010 in Dallas, Texas where I spoke with Todd Rockoff, executive director of the HDcctv Alliance. The alliance, which is dedicated to promoting interoperability standards among high-definition, analog security devices, has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception a couple of years ago. When I last met with the alliance at ISC West 2010 , the group had just over 20 member companies. According to Rockoff, that number has now nearly doubled to 45 member companies and growing. While most innovation in the surveillance industry is now almost exclusively IP, the fact remains that there are still a lot of legacy installations, such as convenience stores and other small... -
Some sights from CEDIA 2010
By Joel Griffin - Tuesday September 28, 2010
In case you missed some of the coverage on our homepage last week, I had a chance to attend the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association Expo (CEDIA 2010) last week in Atlanta. As you would expect, a big part of the show focused on some of the latest and greatest in home entertainment technology, but the show also held value for security dealers that may be looking to broaden their horizons when it comes to integrating security devices with other home systems, such as lighting controls and HVAC. Click here to read more about some of the new solutions for security installers that I came across at the show. As with most tradeshows, there was a lot to take in outside of most vendors' booths and no, I'm not talking about...
