We've been elucubrating. That means burning the midnight oil if you're like me and like to speak more colloquially. The team at Cygnus Security Media has been running data imports, designing website features, choosing colors, thinking carefully about user experiences, upgrading systems, creating content and generally working hard late into the night to bring you the new SecurityInfoWatch.com. We hope you are as excited about it as we are.
What's so exciting? How about video? Lots of video. Formerly sequestered away in the site, video is now front and center and appears on every page. You'll find product spotlights, interviews with security leaders, tradeshow video reports. What else? How about our very active discussion forums, which are integrated across the site? Get involved in the forums, since SIW is not just about reading articles; it's about technical discussions with your peers. The excitement is over features like a simplified commenting system, where you can sign in with your SIW account, or your Facebook or Twitter account. It's about our magazines. The wonderful content you know from SD&I and STE magazines is now populated across the website in market and product section categories – along with all the breaking news and insightful commentary you've come to expect from Cygnus.
I mentioned that you can now register for an SIW account. Not only does it allow you to post comments, but it's also where you can manage enewsletter subscriptions, and you can use it to download whitepapers and other documents. I could go on and on about the site's features, but I'm sure you'll have fun exploring them yourselves. If you have any concerns on the site you want to let me know about, email me directly: [email protected]. I want to hear from you!
This Week's Highlights
HID Global goes more global
HID Global purchased visitor management software company EasyLobby. Steadily HID Global has been building itself into a end-to-end shop for identity and access, where you can get everything from the cards to the readers to the visitor management software to the card printers. The purchase of EasyLobby not only brought in the visitor management software, but also brought over an estimated 5,500 existing installations into HID's pocket. Mind you there are plenty of other visitor management solutions (StopWare, LobbyGuard, LobbyTrack, Honeywell's LobbyWorks, and a lot more), so this doesn't mean HID is cornering the market for lobby management, but you can imagine the possibilities when you link the lobby software with the card readers, the access control database, the authentication tokens, and even logical access control. It's another piece in the identity puzzle that HID is trying to solve.
SD&I Fast50
Are you growing your security integration or dealer business? If so, SD&I magazine wants to recognize you. The magazine will be presenting awards to the 50 fastest growing integration and dealer firms (the awards will be handed out at this year's ISC West tradeshow), and to enter, you have to fill out a quick form – there's no cost to enter. Report your financial growth to SD&I (your data is strictly confidential and will not be shared with the industry), and the magazine will recognize those firms with the highest growth percentages in its March 2012 issue. Go to our Fast50 page to learn more.
Selling video verification to the insurance industry
Videofied's Keith Jentoft was able to make in-roads into the insurance industry. As most of know, a 10% discount is sometimes offered by insurance companies for monitored alarm systems at your home and/or business. According to Keith, that discount and the insurance industry's love with alarms is waning due to decreased police response and because insurance companies aren't as profitable as they were in year's past when they could ignore losses because they were making so much money off the stock market. Keith is trying to get the insurance industry excited about video verification of alarms and is working more or less as a one man army for the video verification industry.
Corporate security concerns for 2012
Thinking about global corporate security? While the Occupy movement may have lost some momentum (probably lost due to dropping temperature more than anything else), iJet is predicting some new issues to be aware of for 2012. Major flooding, global kidnapping, national food shortages – these are the things that iJet thinks could cause new tensions for governments in 2012 and which could put unrest at the doors of your overseas operations. Read their list of global security concerns to watch.
In other news
An eighth grader who presented a gun at a school was shot dead by police in the school's hallway. It's a reminder of the continued vigilance in the area of school security, but more importantly it says "Wake up, parents, and pay some attention to your children!!!" ... Parking lots continue to be one of the areas where you can expect violent incidents. A patient left a Georgia hospital to smoke a cigarette in the parking garage and ended up with a gunshot to his abdomen that put him right back in the hospital. Fortunately security officers found the victim quickly while looking for who might have fired the shots. ... An armed robbery of a New York pharmacy left an ATF agent dead, and now New York's Senator Schumer is calling for heightened security at drugstores. Prescription drug theft was the crime that precipitated the subsequent death of the ATF agent, and continues to be a problem for pharmacy operators.
