Security Technology Executive magazine publisher Steve Lasky's blog The Blender looks at current events and trending news articles related to the security industry.
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Video surveillance plays key role in Boston's bombing investigation
By Steve Lasky - Friday April 19, 2013
What began decades ago in the UK as a way to control soccer hooliganism has come full circle as a result of the senseless bombings this week during the Boston Marathon. The use of video surveillance by law enforcement, with the cooperation of the private sector, not only captured the bombing events, but has been a key to identifying the bombers themselves. Urban video surveillance deployment is the fastest growing sector in the video world. Cities ranging from metropolises like New York City and Chicago to smaller burgs like Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Sandy Springs, Ga., have made video an integral part of their secured cities plan. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said that Americans should get used to “more visibility and less... -
March hoop tournament brings madness to IT administrators
By Steve Lasky - Wednesday March 20, 2013
As the NCAA collegiate basketball tournament tips off this week, March Madness is not just reserved for the court. Because if you are one of thousands of IT network managers across the United States, March means more stress on your corporate network than a last second three-pointer for a game-winner. Network administrators can expect, on average, a 30 percent increase in network traffic as employees download streaming video on their desktops, laptops, iPads, smartphone and any other BYOD they have stowed in their sports bag. The challenge for haggard IT folks is to understand the impact March Madness traffic will have on their networks and proactively address potential issues before they face significant events. Being able to monitor... -
Preventing retail hacks with some commonsense
By Steve Lasky - Thursday February 28, 2013
It was truly the stuff of a bad Hollywood crime movie. Eastern European criminals hack into an unsuspecting high-profile business stealing valuable information and creating havoc for their victim. But in the end, a sloppy trail of unsophisticated maneuvers leads to the thieves’ downfall and provides a costly life lesson for the corporate patsy. When four Romanian hackers compromised the credit card data of more than 80,000 U.S. customers and used the data to make millions of dollars in unauthorized purchases, they were certainly looking for a better deal than a Subway $5 foot-long sandwich. Their successful caper saw them hack the credit card information of 150 Subway restaurants, along with another 50 unnamed retailers. And according... -
Outlining business trends among integrators
By Steve Lasky - Friday February 22, 2013
There were a few major themes that permeated throughout the annual Electronic Security Association (ESA) Leadership Summit this week in Orlando — one was that video is still a driving technology force in the marketplace for security dealers and integrators; another was that the migration to IP-centric solutions is quickly changing the landscape of both the services and monitoring sides of the security business; the third was that the big are just getting bigger. These facts were highlighted when ESA director and CEO Merlin Guilbeau presented the findings of the 2013 Megatrends Research Report during a luncheon at the Rosen Centre Hotel. The online survey was sent out to the ESX industry database — from the 22,000 professionals... -
‘Duck and Cover’ is not the answer
By Steve Lasky - Monday February 4, 2013Those of us who belong to the Baby Boomer generation remember growing up with government public service films when we were in elementary and middle school — yes I said 16mm film not video. Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember teasing the AV geek in school! Back in the 1950s and 60s, the feds had launched their campaign of “duck and cover” — a strategy aimed to help school kids survive a nuclear holocaust by hiding under desks. When you’re 10 years old, it sounded like a great plan. Now, those old black-and-white PSAs were comical at best and misleading at worst, if their objectives were to heighten awareness. Turn the clock ahead 50 years and we see nothing has really changed. Recent mass shooting tragedies at...
