Blog Archives
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Welcome to Lasky’s World
By Steve - Wednesday August 16, 2006Let's get ready to rumble! As a huge boxing fan that still remains one of my favorite opening lines. I thought it only appropriate to use it as I launch my first blog. As a 20 year veteran of the security industry I have seen an evolution of both technology and culture. Today we are at a cross road that is not only influenced by the rapid progression of widgets, but increasingly by the myopic view of our nation's politicians. In the coming weeks and months I will be sharing my opinions, views of the world and even some humorous insight into myriad topics not exclusive to security. The bottom line here is we are looking to open an interactive discussion on issues and events that are shaping security policy and political agendas. You might... -
Defragging the industry
By Geoff Kohl - Wednesday August 16, 2006I spoke this morning with Steve Collen, the director of product marketing for Cisco. One of the things Steve and I spoke about was about "defragging the industry." Defragging is a term that computers use may know... it refers to the process of defragmenting a hard drive such that data storage is used optimally. The end result is that your hard drive spins to the data point in less time and space can be freed up. Â Cisco's Collen and I were talking about how Cisco has between 60 and 80 percent of the networking solutions market, and how the physical security industry could use some of this defragging. One thing's for sure, Cisco is not a sleeping giant in our industry. I anticipate some big news out of Cisco around ASIS...they were... -
Sharing between private and public sectors
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday August 15, 2006I just came across a great resource for those of you who are high-level end users needing to share information and receive information with your counterparts at the FBI -- https://seern.usp3.org/ One of the cool things here is that with your membership you can receive a daily update of world situations...very useful if you're overseeing security for a global or semi-global corporation. Today, for example, I see the note that in the Philippines, an organized gang has dressed as airport staff and been involved in on-airport-property robberies of travelers...Isn't that something you'd want your employees to be aware of? -
The relationship between security and convenience
By Geoff Kohl - Tuesday August 15, 2006from last Friday...my column that appears as The Security Week That Was... Â Â I was on the phone yesterday with Henri Nolin, CPP, who is one of the assistant chairpersons to ASIS International's Transportation Security Council. Nolin, who works primarily with K-9 protection deployments for cruise ship screenings, is well connected in all areas of transportation security, and was telling me about an ASIS education conference he has planned for Chicago on Dec. 11-13 addressing "Trends in Transportation Security." Nolin mentioned that one of the aspects that the conference addresses is suicide bombers. "It's not a question of whether suicide bombers will hit us in our own nation," said Nolin, "because we already know they're... -
Enter the blogosphere
By Geoff Kohl - Monday August 14, 2006As a journalist, I've always been a bit perplexed by the idea of a blog. In the world of media, we called such things "columns" and we wrote them to fill the blank spots on the editorial pages of newspapers...but today, with the Internet's changes, even a regular column doesn't quite suffice to fill the need for informal writing where you can swing an axe at a variety of topics, have your thoughts up in 2 seconds, share comments with other readers, and accept the dose of criticism you've earned when your opinions aren't shared by everyone. So at long last, I've realized that it's time to start blogging on the topic that I cover as editor of SecurityInfoWatch.com. That said, I welcome you to "The Security Check" -- and this will be my... -
Hello “interoperability.â€
By Greg McConnell - Friday August 11, 2006Earlier this week I attended ADT's Technology & Convergence Forum, which was held at their flagship North American monitoring center in Aurora, Colorado. I found the forum very informative and one initial observation I would like to share happens to deal with a prediction that was made by Jamie Haenggi, ADT's vice president of worldwide marketing, when she stated that "convergence" will no longer be the security industry's buzzword in 2007. According to her, the new buzzword will be "interoperability." I actually hope that prediction pans out because "interoperability" does get closer to the heart of the matter. It's great to talk about "convergence," but more importantly we need to put the focus on why convergence is happening. At the... -
Don’t be clueless on wireless
By Greg McConnell - Monday July 3, 2006Whether it's Bluetooth for personal area networks (PANs), Wi-Fi for local area networks (LANs), or mesh for wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks are popping up all over the place. And that includes security applications. Last week I finished writing an article about the latest in video technology and completed the text for a pullout poster titled, "Guide to Transmission." Both of these projects reminded me that as we talk about "convergence," "IP" and all of these other buzzwords associated with the increasing influence of computer networks on physical security, the one term that might not be getting emphasized quite enough is "wireless." Of course, that will change as wireless technologies improve and... -
Look, LukWerks works!
By Greg McConnell - Wednesday May 31, 2006So a few months ago Gale Johnson, editor in chief of Locksmith Ledger, invited me into our conference room to see a demo of WiLife Inc.'s LukWerks (pronounced "look works") Digital Video Surveillance System. Evan Tree, president of WiLife, and Mark Fredrickson, director of corporate communications, set up the system for us rather easily. In less than 15 minutes, they had four cameras in various places around our office sending live footage to their laptop on the conference room table. They then proceeded to show us how the software could manipulate the video (for viewing, recording, and editing). Everything seemed to go smoothly, except for when Tree's cell phone had zero bars of coverage and he... -
Game idea
By Greg McConnell - Tuesday May 23, 2006So I just read an article on SIW saying that HID Global will acquire Fargo Electronics, thus gaining a stronger share of the secure ID badge market. This got me to thinking of a new game. I'll call it "Who will Assa Abloy's HID Global acquire next?" Any guesses? (I'd kinda like to see them acquire the Chicago Cubs. They might turn the Cubs into a winner.) -Greg -
I basically don’t hit houses that ain’t got alarms.
By Greg McConnell - Wednesday April 26, 2006I just read an article in the Dealer section of SIW, titled "NC Burglar Shares Tips on How He Preyed on Homes." The article, written by Michelle Crouch of The Charlotte Observer , tells about Anthony Ferguson, the criminal who broke into 600+ homes in Charlotte, North Carolina from the mid-1980's until 1999 when he was caught. In the article, some of Ferguson's secrets are disclosed; probably the most noteworthy of which is when he says, "I basically don't hit houses that ain't got alarms." What? Yes, that's what he said. Here's the passage I found most interesting in the article: For Ferguson at least, alarm systems weren't a deterrent. In fact, he specifically looked for homes that had them. For one thing, he said, they were...
